Change in the Boundaries of the Right for Integrity of a Work: Example of Theatrical Production

Abstract

The article examines the boundaries of the author’s right to the integrity of a work using the example of a theatrical production. The research is based on the application of general scientific methods (systemic analysis, synthesis, induction) and special legal methods (formal legal analysis, comparative law, legal modeling), as well as on an interdisciplinary approach drawing on philological and theatre studies scholarship. The analysis proceeds from the recognition of stage direction as an independent form of artistic creation, reinforced by the international legal principle of respect for the freedom necessary for creative activity. Against this background, the article identifies an inherent tension: the theatrical realization of a play inevitably involves interpretation and creative completion of the dramatic material, whereas the dramatic text itself is protected as a completed result of intellectual activity. Particular attention is paid to the figure of the stage director as a central subject of theatrical production. It is argued that the director’s role extends beyond an auxiliary or technical function and encompasses not only the formation of the artistic concept of the performance, but also responsibility for its integrity as a synthetic stage product. This approach allows directorial activity to be understood as possessing independent artistic and legal significance. The author’s right to the integrity of the work is analysed as a key legal mechanism limiting directorial freedom. It is shown that, in theatrical practice, conflicts related to this right generally do not arise from direct interference with the dramatic text, but rather from the stage reinterpretation of the work and the transformation of its semantic organisation. In this context, the concept of the aleatoric nature of drama is employed to explain the structural incompleteness of the dramatic text and its orientation toward subsequent scenic completion, manifested at the functional, textual, and performative levels. By comparing different legal models of theatrical production, the article demonstrates that the scope of the director’s creative freedom depends on the legal qualification of the performance—whether it is treated as an act of performance, a form of interpretative completion of the dramatic text, or an independent result of intellectual activity. The article concludes that the right to integrity retains its protective function with respect to the semantic core and the “textual matrix” of the play, without turning into a universal prohibition on directorial creativity or impeding the functioning of theatre as a distinct form of artistic activity.