ABSTRACT
This chapter traces female performance beyond early modern England by focusing on Maria Andreeva—the Russian actor, political activist, and theater administrator who, in the first years after the October Revolution, was a key advocate for performing Shakespeare. As the Theater and Spectacle Commissar, and as a professional actor, Andreeva played an important part in the debate about the usefulness of Shakespeare’s plays for post-revolutionary audiences. Yet Andreeva’s work has remained almost entirely undiscussed in Anglophone scholarship; she is usually mentioned only in passing as Maxim Gorky’s common-law wife or Konstantin Stanislavsky’s colleague. This chapter offers the first investigation of Andreeva’s influence and involvement with Shakespeare productions from 1918 to 1920, in her dual role as professional actor and influential administrator.
