''Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich'' (, old orthography: Царь Ѳедоръ Іоанновичъ) is a

1868 Events January * January 2 – British Expedition to Abyssinia: Robert Napier, 1st Baron Napier of Magdala, Robert Napier leads an expedition to free captive British officials and missionaries. * January 3 – The 15-year-old Mutsu ...

historical

drama Drama is the specific Mode (literature), mode of fiction Mimesis, represented in performance: a Play (theatre), play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on Radio drama, radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a g ...

Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy Count Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy (; – ), often referred to as A. K. Tolstoy, was a Russian poet, novelist, and playwright. He is considered to be the most important nineteenth-century Russian historical dramatist, primarily on account o ...

.Banham (1998, 1115) and Moser (1992, 270). It is the second part of a

trilogy A trilogy is a set of three distinct works that are connected and can be seen either as a single work or as three individual works. They are commonly found in literature, film, and video games. Three-part works that are considered components of ...

that begins with ''

The Death of Ivan the Terrible ''The Death of Ivan the Terrible'' () is a historical drama by Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy written in 1863 and first published in the January 1866 issue of '' Otechestvennye zapiski'' magazine.А.К. Толстой. Собрание сочин ...

'' and concludes with '' Tsar Boris''.Moser (1992, 270). All three plays were banned by the censor.Hartnoll (1983, 831). ''Tsar Fyodor'' is written in

blank verse Blank verse is poetry written with regular metre (poetry), metrical but rhyme, unrhymed lines, usually in iambic pentameter. It has been described as "probably the most common and influential form that English poetry has taken since the 16th cen ...

and was influenced by the work of

William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

, Casimir Delavigne, and

Edward Bulwer-Lytton Edward George Earle Lytton Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton (; 25 May 1803 – 18 January 1873) was an English writer and politician. He served as a Whig member of Parliament from 1831 to 1841 and a Conservative from 1851 to 1866. He was Secr ...

. It dramatises the story of

Feodor I of Russia Feodor I Ioannovich () or Fyodor I Ivanovich (; 31 May 1557 – 17 January 1598), nicknamed the Blessed (), was Tsar of all Russia from 1584 until his death in 1598. Feodor's mother died when he was three, and he grew up in the shadow of his ...

, whom the play portrays as a good man who is a weak, ineffectual ruler.Eriksen, MacLeod, and Wisneski (1960, 832). The trilogy formed the core of Tolstoy's reputation as a writer in the Russia of his day and as a dramatist to this day. It has been considered Tolstoy's

masterpiece A masterpiece, , or ; ; ) is a creation that has been given much critical praise, especially one that is considered the greatest work of a person's career or a work of outstanding creativity, skill, profundity, or workmanship. Historically, ...

. ''Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich'' was first performed in an

amateur An amateur () is generally considered a person who pursues an avocation independent from their source of income. Amateurs and their pursuits are also described as popular, informal, autodidacticism, self-taught, user-generated, do it yourself, DI ...

production in

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

in 1890. It received its first professional production at Suvorin's theatre in Saint Petersburg on 12 October 1898, directed by P. P. Gnedich. Two days later on 14 October, the play was performed as the inaugural production of the world-famous

Moscow Art Theatre The Moscow Art Theatre (or MAT; , ''Moskovskiy Hudojestvenny Akademicheskiy Teatr'' (МHАТ) was a theatre company in Moscow. It was founded in by the seminal Russian theatre practitioner Konstantin Stanislavski, together with the playwright ...

, directed by Constantin Stanislavski, with Ivan Moskvin in the lead role and

Vsevolod Meyerhold Vsevolod Emilyevich Meyerhold (; born ; 2 February 1940) was a Russian and Soviet theatre director, actor and theatrical producer. His provocative experiments dealing with physical being and symbolism in an unconventional theatre setting m ...

as Prince Vasiliy Shuisky.Banham (1998, 1115), Benedetti (1999, 386), Braun (1995, 11), Hartnoll (1983, 831), and Worrall (1996, 85-102). Since then the play has been revived frequently.

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 written for the play by Alexander Ilyinsky.

References

Sources

* Banham, Martin, ed. 1998. ''The Cambridge Guide to Theatre.'' Cambridge: Cambridge UP. . * Benedetti, Jean. 1999. ''Stanislavski: His Life and Art''. Revised edition. Original edition published in 1988. London: Methuen. . * Braun, Edward. 1995. ''Meyerhold: A Revolution in Theatre.'' Rev. 2nd ed. London: Methuen. . * Eriksen, Gordon, Garrard MacLeod, and Martin Wisneski, ed. 1960. ''Encyclopædia Britannica 15th Edition.'' Volume 11. * Hartnoll, Phyllis, ed. 1983. ''The Oxford Companion to the Theatre''. 4th ed. Oxford: Oxford UP. . * Moser, Charles A., ed. 1992. ''The Cambridge History of Russian Literature.'' Rev. ed. Cambridge: Cambridge UP. . * Tolstoy, Aleksey Konstantinovich. 1922. ''Tsar Fiodor Ioannovich: A Play in Five Acts.'' Trans. Jenny Covan. The Moscow Art Theatre Series of Russian Plays ser. Ed. Oliver M. Sayler. New York: Brentanos
Available online
* Worrall, Nick. 1996. ''The Moscow Art Theatre.'' Theatre Production Studies ser. London and NY: Routledge. .

External links

*
Online English translation by Jenny Covan
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tsar Fiodor Ioannovich 1868 plays Plays by Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy