Vsevolod Emilievich Meyerhold (1874-1940)
Asking for French translations of two plays. 1930
Autograph letter signed ('V. Meyerhold') to 'Vladimir Lvovich', [Paris], 6 June 1930.

In Russian. One page, 270 x 210mm. Provenance: RR Auction, 8 March 2018, lot 773.

Asking for French translations of three play scripts. Meyerhold asks the recipient to translate three plays into French: Gogol's Inspector General, Fernand Crommelynck's Le Cocu magnifique and Alexander Ostrovsky's The Forest. 'The script of the Forest will be delivered to you today but a bit later'.

Gogol's The Government Inspector and Crommelynck's Le Cocu magnifique are amongst Meyerhold's most famous productions. It is a sign of his famous perfectionism that even if the latter was originally written in French, he should wish to have the script translated from the Russian version he had been using. The letter is written in Paris during Meyerhold's European tour with his GosTiM theatre. It was during this tour that the director Mikhail Chekhov, who had defected during a similar tour two years previously, spoke to him of his premonitions of the fate that awaited him should he return to the USSR. Meyerhold responded '"I know you are right - my end will be as you say. But I will return to the Soviet Union". To my question – "why?" – he replied: "out of honesty"''.

It is possible that the recipient is the celebrated revolutionary and journalist V.L. Burtsev (1862-1942), who lived in Paris.

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