MSH Val de Loire Visiting Researchers Programme

Originally created in the Tsarist Empire, the Yiddish-language company the Vilna Troupe received international recognition due to its large national appeal to worldwide Jewish (especially Yiddish-speaking) communities and to its innovative performances for the non-Jewish audience. Aside from its strong ideological impact for the Jewish public, the company suceeded in transferring cultural trends and theatrical practices across Europe, becoming an international brand and a facilitator of crosscultural cooperation. While the importance of the company for the history of Yiddish theatre and for the Jewish cultural life in general has been recently documented (I. Bercovici, D. Caplan, A. Chiriac, Camelia Crăciun, N. Underwood), the impact of the Vilna Troupe beyond the Jewish community has been neglected, despite being remarkable. Therefore, my research focused on the impact that the Vilna Troupe had on the non-Jewish audience across Europe in terms of cultural transfer and political reception using mainly the mainstream press (but also archival sources and memoirs).