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EDNOTE. I ran across an URL with the intriguing name www.nabokov-online.com . I queried the address and got the reply below.
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-----Original Message-----
From: D. Barton Johnson [mailto:chtodel@cox.net]
Sent: 24 September 2004 04:26
To: contact@nabokov-online.com
Subject: Nabokov?
Dear "Nabokov",
I ran across your URL and info and wondered..... I run the Nabokv-l Electronic Discussion Form for the International V. Nabokov Society and am curious about your choice of name for your group. I can run a note about your group on the list and a word of explanation from you re the name would be good.
Best of luck!
Don Johnson, Editor NABOKV-L
----- Original Message -----
From: James Grieve
To: D. Barton Johnson
Sent: Sunday, September 26, 2004 5:16 AM
Subject: RE: Nabokov?
Dear Don,
Thanks for your email. Yes, we're named after Vladimir. I'm a huge fan of his work and when it came to finding a name for the company it just seemed to fit. I was at University at the time, writing an essay on the reception of Lolita, and I was hugely inspired by Nabokov's desire to find an arena in which his talents would be fuly exercised, regardless of the chilly reception such a plot would receive from the establishment.
I found many parallels between the reception of Lolita as an immoral text, and the vilification of much contemporary theatre and art. Whilst the UK's response to Lolita now seems archaic, it is not dissimilar to the reaction Sarah Kane's plays received in the 1990s. We have not moved on as far as we would like to think we have.
As a company we have no affinity to Nabokov beyond the adoption of his name. We produce new theatre with a polical or social theme, with the aim of provoking discussion. We see theatre as a forum for debate, where ideas should ignite and clash as they do in newspapers or on television.
Whilst our work does not reference the great man, it has been an enormous pleasure to meet many other Nabokov fans who have been attracted to us by our name. I have had many wonderful conversations with people who have contacted me to ask about our choice of name, and have met many more who have spoken to me after our shows. Nabokov's work inspires great passion in people, and it has been a joy to meet many who share my humble opinion that he was the greatest prose stylist of the last century.
Thank you for getting in touch.
Kind Regards,
James
James Grieve
artistic director - nabokov
( 0771 313 8650 8 james@nabokov-online.com : www.nabokov-online.com