Granowsky was heavily influenced by the
avant-garde trends of Europe and many of the company's early productions were examples of an
expressionistic style. Archetypes, masks, heavy makeup,
Cubism, and the
grotesque were common staples of the company's performances in the 1920s. In the summertime, the company organized tours to the rural provinces where Yiddish theatre was actually more popular than in the larger cities.
Shtetl residents looked forward to GOSET performances given near their small towns each year. Audience numbers averaged 1,250 per night on tour, as opposed to the nightly house average of less than 300 for performances in Moscow. One of the best documented tours visited
Kiev,
Gomel,
Odessa, and
Kharkov in the summer of 1924 and offered a variety of short sketches called
A Carnival of Jewish Comedy in addition to full-length productions, such as
The Sorceress,
200,000, and
God of Vengeance. At the end of GOSET's European tour that took place throughout the majority of 1928, Granowsky chose to remain in Germany, never returning to the Soviet Union. The decision came after years of conflict with Russian authorities over artistic and financial decisions that Granowsky had made for the company. Soon after the theatre's founding, GOSET had attracted
Solomon Mikhoels, who eventually became the leading actor; after Granowsky defected to the West, Mikhoels took over as artistic director. Under Mikhoels' direction, the company began to produce works by contemporary Soviet Yiddish writers, such as
Shmuel Halkin,
Perets Markish, and
David Bergelson. The international success of the production meant that Mikhoels had achieved one of the theatre company's founding goals: to make Yiddish a language of art for countries around the world. Many of the theatre's plays were ostensibly supportive of the Soviet state, but closer readings suggest they actually contained veiled critiques of
Stalin's regime, most notably the production of
King Lear and the planned production of
Richard III. In 1929, in response to a rise in censorship imposed by the government, the company began offering works of
Socialist Realism as expected; however, the artists placed Jewish subtext in each production by hiding it within allegory, symbols, and Jewish cultural archetypes. Works of Soviet realism were modestly funded, while works retelling historical Jewish achievements, such as
Bar Kochba and the
Maccabees, were large-scale productions. The company's production of
Boytre the Bandit in 1936 was a
Robin Hood-like story written by
Moshe Kulbak. The show celebrated the
proletariat, and while praised by the press, it was condemned by
Lazar Kaganovich, the most prominent Jewish figure in government. Kaganovich chided Mikhoels and the company members of GOSET for not portraying Jewish people in a positive enough light and requested they stick to productions retelling events similar to Bar Kochba. Shortly after,
Boytre the Bandit's author, Kulbak, was arrested, prosecuted in a trial for show, and executed. In October 1936, the Committee of Artistic Affairs informed Mikhoels that he must move away from Granowsky's style of "formalism" (defined as a "departure from reality") and limit the company's productions to realistic portrayals of Jewish history, Jewish folklore, or Soviet Jewry. == Productions ==