ABSTRACT
This essay focuses on Meyerhold’s early years of work – in itself a relatively sidelined area of investigation in the studies dedicated to him – to highlight the ways through which the opera director Savva Mamontov’s concepts, principles, and theatrical practice were transmitted to a young Meyerhold. The emphasis will be on Mamontovian method and practice of using material from the visual arts to create obraz or stage images. Particularly, the creation of obraz will be highlighted as a core theoretical and practical component of Meyerhold’s experiments in ‘conditional theatre’, a working method to further posit Mamontov as an early but key influence on Meyerhold’s growth as a theatre-maker.
