General introduction [The Routledge companion to Vsevolod Meyerhold]

Abstract

Spending time with a companion is not the same as being with a friend. Readers might expect a friend to indulge they at times, tell the odd white lie, even, judging when to be plain-speaking and when, gently, to prevaricate. Companions on the other hand are both intimate and a little distant. They might be employed as such – to perform the duties of a friend – or they might be consciously acquired: a pet for instance, purchased to fill a gap. This distance is reflected in some of the many meanings and etymologies of the term: ‘A person who is with another on a particular occasion, a journey’; one ‘who shares in or partakes of the work, circumstances, experience, etc., of another’. From an academic point of view the distinction is productive and is worthwhile emphasising in this General Introduction to the Routledge Companion to Meyerhold.