Petrushka
The name "Petrushka" originally and primarily refers to the specific stock character of the Russian carnival puppetry.
[5]: 83 The head of the Petrushka puppet was traditionally made with wood, such as birch, with papier-mâché applied to it so as to be lightweight and to make a sound when hit, such as was often the case in the slapstick comedy of carnival theatre.
Petrushka is most often represented wearing red clothing (typically a kaftan and kolpak) and carrying a club called a dubinka (дубинка).
[7]: 62 He is usually at the center of conflict in the Petrushka carnival plays, often getting himself out of trouble by killing the other puppets on stage with a swing of his club.
Petrushka plays were primarily performed in the setting of the carnivals held in cities such as Saint Petersburg, particularly during Shrovetide.
Nekrylova described twenty-three distinct scenes that make up the building blocks of a Petrushka comedy, which could then be combined (or omitted) as desired to fit the context of the performance.
Pietro-Mira Pedrillo of Italy, the court jester of the Empress Anna Ioannovna, allegedly served as a prototype for Petrushka.
Originating as actors in clown makeup before gradually moving toward puppetry, Russian artists began to take over from the Russian-speaking Italian performers who had been running the scenes before.
[12] It was during this period that a young Fyodor Dostoevsky frequented puppet shows with his brother, attesting in his writings for the relationship between Petrushka and Pulcinella.
In his diaries and in "Gospodin Prokharchin," he writes of Petrushka as a counterpart to "Pul'chinel," a companion who would take the stage as sidekick to the puppet whose antics would become his own.
His popularity grew to the point of anachronistic texts from later periods retroactively referring to puppet shows of previous centuries petrushka.
In 1911, the composer Igor Stravinsky wrote a ballet called Petrushka, in which the eponymous hero challenges the love interest of a ballerina he wants to marry.
Andrei Bely's 1913 novel Petersburg about the failed revolution of 1905, for instance, features a scene wherein the protagonist, Nikolai Apollonovich goes from a masked Harlequin of the commedia dell'arte to seeing himself in the mirror as the image of Petrushka amidst the threat of failure in his revolutionary activity.
[18][19] As puppet theatre gradually became a predominantly children's entertainment, Petrushka became less vulgar and aggressive, moving away from his slapstick roots.
[21] The lack of meaningful social commentary in Red Petrushka resulted in conflicts that seemed arbitrary and missing their carnivalesque sense of a world turned upside down.
The Russian Children's Welfare Society (RCWS) hosts an annual "Petroushka Ball", which is named after a version of the Petrushka character who fell in love with a graceful ballerina.
