''The Bedbug'' () is a play by

Vladimir Mayakovsky Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky ( – 14 April 1930) was a Russian poet, playwright, artist, and actor. During his early, Russian Revolution, pre-Revolution period leading into 1917, Mayakovsky became renowned as a prominent figure of the Ru ...

written in 1928–1929 and published originally by '' Molodaya Gvardiya'' magazine (Nos. 3 and 4, 1929), then as a book, by Gosizdat, in 1929. "The faerie comedy in nine pictures", lampooning the type of

philistine Philistines (; Septuagint, LXX: ; ) were ancient people who lived on the south coast of Canaan during the Iron Age in a confederation of city-states generally referred to as Philistia. There is compelling evidence to suggest that the Philist ...

that emerged with the New Economic Policy in the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

, was premiered in February 1929 at the Meyerhold Theatre, with designs by Alexander Rodchenko. Received warmly by audiences, it caused controversy and received harsh treatment in the Soviet press. Unlike its follow-up, '' The Bathhouse'' (denounced as ideologically deficient), ''The Bedbug'' was criticised mostly for its alleged "aesthetic faults".

Plot

The action of the play begins in 1929 in the U.S.S.R. Ivan Prisypkin is a young man in the age of NEP. On the day of his wedding to Elzevir Davidovna Renaissance, Prisypkin is frozen in a basement. After fifty years, he is revived in a world that looks very different. Around him is an ideal communist world, almost a

utopia A utopia ( ) typically describes an imagined community or society that possesses highly desirable or near-perfect qualities for its members. It was coined by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book ''Utopia (book), Utopia'', which describes a fictiona ...

. There is no more poverty and destitution, illness and natural disasters have been defeated, and people have forgotten about drunkenness, smoking, and swearing. Prisypkin does not belong in this future. He becomes an exhibit at the zoo and serves as an example of the vices of a past age to the citizens of the future. The title of the play comes from a

bed bug Bed bugs are parasitic insects from the genus ''Cimex'', which are micropredators that haematophagy, feed on blood, usually at night. Their bites can result in a number of health impacts, including skin rashes, psychological effects, and aller ...

which was frozen at the same time as Prisypkin and becomes his companion.

Characters

* Ivan Prisypkin (Pierre Skripkin) - former worker, former party member, fiancé of Elzevir * Zoya Beryozkina - worker * Oleg Bard - landlord * Elzevir Davidovna Renaissance - Prisypkin's fiancée, manicurist, cashier at hair salon * Rosalie Pavlovna Renaissance - mother of Elzevir * David Osipovich Renaissance - father of Elzevir * Usher at wedding * Professor * Director of the Zoo * Chairman of the City Council * Fire Warden * Orator * Workers, Reporters, Crowd, Hunters, Students, Attendants, Firemen

Production

Vsevolod Meyerhold directed the production of ''The Bedbug'' at the Meyerhold Theatre, which was preceded by a reading by Mayakovsky.

Incidental music Incidental music is music in a play, television program, radio program, video game, or some other presentation form that is not primarily musical. The term is less frequently applied to film music, with such music being referred to instead as th ...

was composed by

Dmitri Shostakovich Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich, group=n (9 August 1975) was a Soviet-era Russian composer and pianist who became internationally known after the premiere of his First Symphony in 1926 and thereafter was regarded as a major composer. Shostak ...

, who later published a suite of extracts as Op. 19a. The play was recognized as "a significant phenomenon of Soviet drama," called "the Soviet ''Auditor''" and offered a place in the repertoire. The play had been performed publicly for three years.

References

External links

Full text of '
at HathiTrust Digital Library 1929 plays Russian plays Plays by Vladimir Mayakovsky Fiction about suspended animation {{1920s-play-stub