Show-Booth, Cabaret Theatre

Categories / Art/Music, Theatre/Stage, Cabaret, Variety Shows
SHOW-BOOTH (Balaganchik), the night cabaret theatre, was opened at the Free Comedy theatre in the autumn of 1921, which was established in 1920 by the Petrograd Theatre Society and the Department for Political Enlightenment of the Baltic Fleet. It was located at 12 Sadovaya Street (see the House with Four Colonnades), a hall with120 seats was decorated especially for the theatre. N. V. Petrov was an organiser and chief producer and S. A. Timoshenko was compere. It was named after the poem by A. A. Blok. It also continued the styles of 1910s’ cabaret. Actors O. G. Kaziko, N. S. Rashevskaya, S. A. Martinson and R. V. Zelenaya and others participated in the performances. Uninhibited interaction with spectators in the Show-Booth, with such events as football games between the spectators and the actors etc. and couplets on the poems by N. R. Erdman and V. M. Inber was a great success. At the end of 1924, the hall of the Free Comedy was re-equipped for a cinema and the Show-Booth ceased existing.

References: Алянский Ю. Л. Увеселительные заведения старого Петербурга. СПб., 1996. С. 38-39.

I. A. Bogdanov. Blok G.P.
Erdman Nikolay Robertovich
Inber Vera Mikhailovna
Kaziko Olga Georgievna
Martinson Sergey Alexandrovich
Petrov Nikolay Vasilievich
Rashevskaya Natalia Sergeevna
Timoshenko Semen Alexeevich
Zelenaya Rina (Ekaterina) Vasilievna
Sadovaya St./Saint Petersburg, city, house 12
Алянский Ю. Л. Увеселительные заведения старого Петербурга. СПб., 1996