play

The single sentence by Mikhail Bulgakov about the final of Nikolay Gogol’s play «Revizor» provokes the author of this work to contemplate the finals of Bulgakov’s plays as well. The researcher suggests that Bulgakov considered the Gogol’s final an excellent example of a grotesque («thunderous», as Bulgakov himself called it) end of action. He proves that such type of an unnatural, unexpected denouement distinguishes many Bulgakov’s works.

In the article the image of the governess Sharlotta Ivanovna, a character from Vishneviy Sad (The Cherry Orchard), is analyzed. The motives of the play realized in the text are key to understanding the character. The story of creation and the stage fate of Sharlotta Ivanovna are also considered in the article.

The article analyzes genre peculiarity of the Vice-King vaudeville – one of the first experiments in drama by I. Ilf and Ye. Petrov. The interaction of artistic means characteristic of the vaudeville genre and satirical comedy is considered; the focuses of dramaturgic action and the vector direction of the traditional vaudeville form update are identified.

The article considers texts accompanying the comedy «The Inspector General». The researcher traces the changes of the author’s assessment of his own texts, the author’s doubts and self-reflection.

The article regards the character of General Varravin – the main and only character moving the scheme forward in the drama «The Case» by A. V. Sukhovo-Kobylin. The ambiguity and inconsistency of this character are specifically highlighted.

The article considers the image of Mashenka Turusina from the play by A. N. Ostrovsky Enough Stupidity in Every Wise Man. Analyzing textual behavior of the character, the author proves that the young foster daughter is not only ‘a home martyr’ but also a skillful manipulator who adjusts the environment to her own liking. This game makes her similar to the main character of the comedy – Glumov: he tries to make his way up by flattery and deception.

The article considers one of the satellites of N. V. Gogol’s comedy The Government Inspector in which an important role is played by the phenomenon of the author’s cunning. All the phases and techniques of the author’s play are consistently revealed; they are aimed at offering the readers a new interpretation of the famous comedy.

The paper examines the creative history of the play Psisha by Yuri Belyaev – a theatre critic, fi ction writer and dramatist of the Silver Age. While working on the article cycle A night at “The Opera House” about theatre history of the times of Catherine II, the critic researched historical sources: periodical, fi ction, documents of the second half of the 18th – early 19th centuries. There Belyaev must have found the material for his early fi ctional experience – the historical short story Psisha.