One need hardly amplify Chekhov’s indictment of the naturalistic theatre…The naturalistic theatre has conducted a never ending search for the fourth wall which has led it into a whole series of absurdities. The theatre fell into the hands of fabricants who tried to make everything “just like real life” and turned the stage into some sort of antique shop.

Meyerhold on Theatre. Trans. Edward Braun. London: Methuen, 1969: 30.