title: Transcultural Aesthetics in the Plays of Gao Xingjian
author: T. Coulter
description: Todd Coulter is Assistant Professor of Theatre and Dance at Colby College, USA.
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  # Annajanska, the Bolshevik Empress
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ### George Bernard Shaw
  
  
  This page copyright © 2001 Munsey's.
  
  
  http://www.munseys.com
  
      
      
      
  
  
  This etext was produced by Eve Sobol, South Bend, Indiana, USA
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ANNAJANSKA is frankly a bravura piece. The modern variety theatre
  
  
  demands for its "turns" little plays called sketches, to last
  
  
  twenty minutes or so, and to enable some favorite performer to
  
  
  make a brief but dazzling appearance on some barely passable
  
  
  dramatic pretext. Miss Lillah McCarthy and I, as author and
  
  
  actress, have helped to make one another famous on many serious
  
  
  occasions, from Man and Superman to Androcles; and Mr Charles
  
  
  Ricketts has not disdained to snatch moments from his painting
  
  
  and sculpture to design some wonderful dresses for us. We three
  
  
  unbent as Mrs Siddons, Sir Joshua Reynolds and Dr Johnson might
  
  
  have unbent, to devise a turn for the Coliseum variety theatre.
  
  
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