Chapters in this book

1. Front Matter i
2. Contents vii
3. Preface ix
4. Prologue 1
5. Who Was That Masked Man? 16
6. Improvisation and Dissonance: Commedia dell’Arte and the Crisis in Theatre 44
7. Pierrot Comes to Petersburg: 1903-17 75
8. Red Harlequins: The Balagan as Theatrical Genre 1917–22 103
9. Pierrot or Petrushka? Russian Harlequinades 125
10. Russian Pirandellos: The Balagan as a Dramatic Genre 159
11. Harlequin’s Shadow: The Film as Balagan 205
12. The Empty Throne: Theatre as Metahistory 229
13. Appendices 237
14. The Beggar Harlequin 239
15. Today’s Colombine: A Pantomime 245
16. Fiametta’s Four Corpses 250
17. The Lovers 254
18. Harlequin the Card–Lover 257
19. The Apes Are Coming! 272
20. Notes 297
21. Bibliography 335
22. Index 349