A Month in the Country (play)
Encyclopedia
A Month in the Country is a comedy in five acts by Ivan Turgenev
Ivan Turgenev
Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev was a Russian novelist, short story writer, and playwright. His first major publication, a short story collection entitled A Sportsman's Sketches, is a milestone of Russian Realism, and his novel Fathers and Sons is regarded as one of the major works of 19th-century...

. It was written in France between 1848 and 1850 and was first published in 1855. The play was not staged until 1872
1872 in literature
The year 1872 in literature involved some significant new books.-Events:*Paul Verlaine abandons his family to go to London with Arthur Rimbaud....

, when it was given as a benefit performance for the Moscow actress E N Vasilyeva, who was keen to play the leading role of Natalya Petrovna.

Plot summary

The setting is the Islaev country estate in the 1840s. Natalya Petrovna, a headstrong 29-year-old, is married to Arkadi Islaev, a rich landowner seven years her senior. Bored with life, she welcomes the attentions of Mikhail Rakitin as her devoted but resentful admirer, without ever letting their friendship develop into a love affair.

The arrival of the handsome 21-year-old student Aleksei Belyaev as tutor to her son Kolya ends her boredom. Natalya falls in love with Aleksei, but so does her ward Vera, the Islaevs' 17-year-old foster daughter. To rid herself of her rival, Natalya proposes that Vera should marry a rich old neighbour, but the rivalry remains unresolved.

Rakitin struggles with his love for Natalya, and she wrestles with hers for Aleksei, while Vera and Aleksei draw closer. Misunderstandings arise, and when Arkadi begins to have his suspicions, both Rakitin and Aleksei are obliged to leave. As other members of the household drift off to their own worlds, Natalya's life returns to a state of boredom.

Characters

  • Arkadi Sergeyevich Islayev, a rich landowner, 36
  • Natalya Petrovna, his wife, 29
  • Kolya, their son, 10
  • Vera Aleksandrovna (Verochka), Natalya's ward, 17
  • Anna Semyonovna Islayeva, Arkadi's mother, 58
  • Lizaveta Bogdanovna, a companion, 37
  • Adam Ivanovich Schaff, a German tutor, 45
  • Mikhail Aleksandrovich Rakitin, a family friend, 30
  • Aleksei Nikolayevich Belyaev, a student, Kolya's tutor, 21
  • Afanasi Ivanovich Bolshintsov, a neighbour, 48
  • Ignati Ilyich Shpigelsky, a doctor, 40
  • Matvei, a servant, 40
  • Katya, a servant, 20

Acts

Act 1: The Drawing Room, afternoon

Act 2: The Garden, the following day

Act 3: The Drawing Room, the following day

Act 4: The Estate, the same evening

Act 5: The Veranda, the following day

History of the play

Originally entitled The Student, the play was banned by the Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...

 censor
Censorship
thumb|[[Book burning]] following the [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|1973 coup]] that installed the [[Military government of Chile |Pinochet regime]] in Chile...

 without being performed. Turgenev changed the title to Two Women. In 1854 it was passed for publication, provided alterations were made — demands made more on moral than political grounds. To play down the controversy, Turgenev finally changed the name to A Month in the Country.

Following the 1872 premiere, the play was not performed again until 1879, when it became a regular part of the Russian repertoire.

In an introduction to his 1994 English translation, Richard Freeborn wrote:
”Turgenev’s comedy has often been called Chekhovian, even through it preceded Chekhov’s mature work by more than forty years. The happiest irony surrounding the play’s survival is that its ultimate success was due more than anything to the popularity of Chekhov’s work and the kind of ensemble playing which Stanislavsky fostered at the Moscow Art Theatre
Moscow Art Theatre
The Moscow Art Theatre is a theatre company in Moscow that the seminal Russian theatre practitioner Constantin Stanislavski, together with the playwright and director Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko, founded in 1898. It was conceived as a venue for naturalistic theatre, in contrast to the melodramas...

. It was his production in 1909, when he played the role of Rakitin, that finally demonstrated the true brilliance of Turgenev’s long-neglected play.”

Major productions in English translation

  • Eltinge 42nd Street Theatre, New York, March 1930, directed by Rouben Mamoulian
    Rouben Mamoulian
    Rouben Mamoulian was an Armenian-American film and theatre director.-Biography:Born in Tbilisi, Georgia to an Armenian family, Rouben relocated to England and started directing plays in London in 1922...

    , starring Alla Nazimova
    Alla Nazimova
    Alla Nazimova , was a Russian American film and theatre actress, a screenwriter and film producer. She is perhaps best known as simply Nazimova, but also went under the name Alia Nasimoff.-Early life:...

     and Elliott Cabot
  • St James's Theatre
    St James's Theatre
    The St James's Theatre was a 1,200-seat theatre located in King Street, at Duke Street, St James's, London. The elaborate theatre was designed with a neo-classical exterior and a Louis XIV style interior by Samuel Beazley and built by the partnership of Peto & Grissell for the tenor and theatre...

     London, February 1943, adapted and directed by Emlyn Williams
    Emlyn Williams
    George Emlyn Williams, CBE , known as Emlyn Williams, was a Welsh dramatist and actor.-Biography:He was born into a Welsh-speaking, working class family in Mostyn, Flintshire....

     starring Michael Redgrave
    Michael Redgrave
    Sir Michael Scudamore Redgrave, CBE was an English stage and film actor, director, manager and author.-Youth and education:...

     and Valerie Taylor
    Valerie Taylor (actress)
    Valerie Taylor was an English actress. She was married the actor Hugh Sinclair.-Partial filmography:* Berkeley Square * Designing Women * Went the Day Well?...

  • New Theatre
    Noël Coward Theatre
    The Noël Coward Theatre, formerly known as the Albery Theatre, is a West End theatre on St. Martin's Lane in the City of Westminster. It opened on 12 March 1903 as the New Theatre and was built by Sir Charles Wyndham behind Wyndham's Theatre which was completed in 1899. The building was designed by...

     London, November 1949, directed by Michel Saint-Denis
    Michel Saint-Denis
    Michel Saint-Denis , dit Jacques Duchesne, was a French actor, theater director, and drama theorist whose ideas on actor training have had a profound influence on the development of European theater from the 1930s on.Michel Saint-Denis was born in Beauvais, France, the nephew of Jacques Copeau, who...

     for the Old Vic Company at the New, starring Michael Redgrave and Angela Baddeley
    Angela Baddeley
    Angela Baddeley, CBE , born Madeline Angela Clinton-Baddeley, was an English actress best remembered for her role as Mrs Bridges in the period drama Upstairs, Downstairs...

  • Yvonne Arnaud Theatre
    Yvonne Arnaud Theatre
    The Yvonne Arnaud Theatre in Guildford, Surrey presents in-house productions which often tour and transfer to London's West End. Other performances include opera, ballet and pantomime. Named after the actress Yvonne Arnaud, the company has two performance venues, a main theatre and the smaller Mill...

    , Guildford, May 1965, and Cambridge Theatre
    Cambridge Theatre
    The Cambridge Theatre is a West End theatre, on a corner site in Earlham Street facing Seven Dials, in the London Borough of Camden, built in 1929-30. It was designed by Wimperis, Simpson and Guthrie; interior partly by Serge Chermayeff, with interior bronze friezes by sculptor Anthony Gibbons...

     London, September 1965, directed by Michael Redgrave, starring Ingrid Bergman
    Ingrid Bergman
    Ingrid Bergman was a Swedish actress who starred in a variety of European and American films. She won three Academy Awards, two Emmy Awards, and the Tony Award for Best Actress. She is ranked as the fourth greatest female star of American cinema of all time by the American Film Institute...

     and Michael Redgrave, and featuring Fay Compton
    Fay Compton
    Fay Compton was an English actress from a notable acting lineage; her father was actor/manager Edward Compton; her mother, Virginia Bateman, was a distinguished member of the profession, as were her sister, the actress Viola Compton, and her uncles and aunts. Her grandfather was the 19th-century...

    , Jeremy Brett
    Jeremy Brett
    Jeremy Brett , born Peter Jeremy William Huggins, was an English actor, most famous for his portrayal of Sherlock Holmes in four Granada TV series.-Early life:...

    , Emlyn Williams
    Emlyn Williams
    George Emlyn Williams, CBE , known as Emlyn Williams, was a Welsh dramatist and actor.-Biography:He was born into a Welsh-speaking, working class family in Mostyn, Flintshire....

    , Peter Pratt
    Peter Pratt
    Peter Pratt was an English actor and singer who is best remembered for his comic roles in the Gilbert and Sullivan comic operas....

     and Joanna Dunham
    Joanna Dunham
    Joanna Dunham is an English actress, best noted for her work on stage and television. She has also appeared in several major motion pictures.-Career:Dunham was born in Luton, Bedfordshire, England...

  • Albery Theatre London, November 1975, directed by Toby Robertson, starring Dorothy Tutin
    Dorothy Tutin
    Dame Dorothy Tutin DBE was an English actor of stage, film, and television.An obituary in The Daily Telegraph described her as "one of the most enchanting, accomplished and intelligent leading ladies on the post-war British stage...

     and Derek Jacobi
    Derek Jacobi
    Sir Derek George Jacobi, CBE is an English actor and film director.A "forceful, commanding stage presence", Jacobi has enjoyed a highly successful stage career, appearing in such stage productions as Hamlet, Uncle Vanya, and Oedipus the King. He received a Tony Award for his performance in...

  • Roundabout Theatre Company
    Roundabout Theatre Company
    The Roundabout Theatre Company is a leading non-profit theatre company based in New York City.-History:The company was founded in 1965 by Gene Feist and Elizabeth Owens and now operates five theatres, all in Manhattan: the American Airlines Theatre ; Studio 54 ; the Stephen Sondheim Theatre The...

     New York City, 1979, directed by Michael Kahn
    Michael Kahn (theatre director)
    Michael Kahn is the Artistic Director of the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, D.C., USA. He held the position of Richard Rodgers Director of the Drama Division of the Juilliard School from 1992 to 2006....

    , starring Tammy Grimes
    Tammy Grimes
    -Early life:Grimes was born in Lynn, Massachusetts, the daughter of Eola Willard , a naturalist and spiritualist, and Nicholas Luther Grimes, an innkeeper, country-club manager, and farmer. She attended high school at the then-all girls school, Beaver Country Day School, in Chestnut Hill,...

    , Amanda Plummer and Thor Fields
    Thor Fields
    Thor Fields is an American actor and guitarist.-Commercials:Fields got his start in show business at the age of 18 months in a commercial for Pampers. Filmed in 1971 Thor was one of the last people to ride the carousel at the famous amusement park at Palisades Park. During the mid-1970s Thor...

  • National Theatre
    Royal National Theatre
    The Royal National Theatre in London is one of the United Kingdom's two most prominent publicly funded theatre companies, alongside the Royal Shakespeare Company...

     Olivier, London, February 1981, translated by Isaiah Berlin
    Isaiah Berlin
    Sir Isaiah Berlin OM, FBA was a British social and political theorist, philosopher and historian of ideas of Russian-Jewish origin, regarded as one of the leading thinkers of the twentieth century and a dominant liberal scholar of his generation...

    , directed by Peter Gill
    Peter Gill (playwright)
    Peter Gill, theatre director, playwright and former actor, was born in Cardiff, Wales, on 7 September 1939, son of George John Gill and his wife Margaret Mary .He was educated at St Illtyd's College, Cardiff.-Career:...

    , starring Francesca Annis
    Francesca Annis
    Francesca Annis is an English actress, known for her film and television appearances, most recently in the BBC series Wives and Daughters, Cranford, and Deceit.-Early life and education:...

     and Nigel Terry
    Nigel Terry
    Nigel Terry is an English stage and film actor probably best known by film audiences for his portrayal of King Arthur in John Boorman's Excalibur . However, he has had a long career in classical theatre....

  • Abbey Theatre
    Abbey Theatre
    The Abbey Theatre , also known as the National Theatre of Ireland , is a theatre located in Dublin, Ireland. The Abbey first opened its doors to the public on 27 December 1904. Despite losing its original building to a fire in 1951, it has remained active to the present day...

     Dublin, 1992, in a version by Brian Friel
    Brian Friel
    Brian Friel is an Irish dramatist, author and director of the Field Day Theatre Company. He is considered to be the greatest living English-language dramatist, hailed by the English-speaking world as an "Irish Chekhov" and "the universally accented voice of Ireland"...

    ; revived by the RSC
    Royal Shakespeare Company
    The Royal Shakespeare Company is a major British theatre company, based in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. The company employs 700 staff and produces around 20 productions a year from its home in Stratford-upon-Avon and plays regularly in London, Newcastle-upon-Tyne and on tour across...

     at the Swan in Stratford-upon-Avon
    Stratford-upon-Avon
    Stratford-upon-Avon is a market town and civil parish in south Warwickshire, England. It lies on the River Avon, south east of Birmingham and south west of Warwick. It is the largest and most populous town of the District of Stratford-on-Avon, which uses the term "on" to indicate that it covers...

    , December 1998, directed by Michael Attenborough, and at The Pit
    Barbican Centre
    The Barbican Centre is the largest performing arts centre in Europe. Located in the City of London, England, the Centre hosts classical and contemporary music concerts, theatre performances, film screenings and art exhibitions. It also houses a library, three restaurants, and a conservatory...

     in London, May 1999
  • Albery Theatre London, March 1994; directed by Bill Bryden
    Bill Bryden
    William Campbell Rough Bryden CBE is a British stage- and film director and screenwriter.-Biography:...

    , starring Helen Mirren
    Helen Mirren
    Dame Helen Mirren, DBE is an English actor. She has won an Academy Award for Best Actress, four SAG Awards, four BAFTAs, three Golden Globes, four Emmy Awards, and two Cannes Film Festival Best Actress Awards.-Early life and family:...

     and John Hurt
    John Hurt
    John Vincent Hurt, CBE is an English actor, known for his leading roles as John Merrick in The Elephant Man, Winston Smith in Nineteen Eighty-Four, Mr. Braddock in The Hit, Stephen Ward in Scandal, Quentin Crisp in The Naked Civil Servant and An Englishman in New York...

     with Joseph Fiennes
    Joseph Fiennes
    Joseph Fiennes is an English film and stage actor. He is perhaps best known for his portrayals of William Shakespeare in Shakespeare in Love, Sir Robert Dudley in Elizabeth, Commisar Danilov in Enemy at the Gates, Martin Luther in Luther, Merlin in Camelot, and his portrayal of Mark Benford in the...

     as Belyaev
  • Criterion Center Stage Right, New York, April 1995, directed by Scott Ellis
    Scott Ellis
    Scott Ellis is an American stage director and television director.-Biography:Ellis has directed numerous Off-Broadway and Broadway productions, including the New York City Opera Company revivals at the New York State Theatre: A Little Night Music and 110 in the Shade up to his current show, the...

    , starring Helen Mirren
    Helen Mirren
    Dame Helen Mirren, DBE is an English actor. She has won an Academy Award for Best Actress, four SAG Awards, four BAFTAs, three Golden Globes, four Emmy Awards, and two Cannes Film Festival Best Actress Awards.-Early life and family:...

     (Tony nominee, 1995 Theatre World Award) and Ron Rifkin
    Ron Rifkin
    Ron Rifkin is an American actor. He is best-known for his roles as Arvin Sloane on the spy drama Alias and as Saul Holden on the American family drama Brothers & Sisters.-Personal life:...


Films in English

A Month in the Country has been adapted several times in English as made-for-television films. These include productions in:
  • 1955, with Margaret Leighton (Natalya), Laurence Harvey
    Laurence Harvey
    Laurence Harvey was a Lithuanian-born actor who achieved fame in British and American films.- Early life :Harvey maintained throughout his life that his birth name was Laruschka Mischa Skikne. However, his legal name was Zvi Mosheh Skikne. He was the youngest of three boys born to Ber "Boris" and...

     (Belyaev), and Michael Gough
    Michael Gough
    Michael Gough was an English character actor who appeared in over 150 films. He is perhaps best known to international audiences for his roles in the Hammer Horror films from 1958, and for his recurring role as Alfred Pennyworth in all four movies of the Burton/Schumacher Batman franchise,...

     (Rakitin)
  • 1966, with Vivien Merchant
    Vivien Merchant
    Vivien Merchant was a British actress.-Career:Merchant performed in many stage productions and several films, including Alfie and Frenzy...

     (Natalya), Hywel Bennett
    Hywel Bennett
    Hywel Thomas Bennett is a Welsh film and television actor. Bennett is best known for his recurring title role as James Shelley in the television sitcom Shelley from 1979 to 1984 and its sequel The Return of Shelley from 1988 to 1992....

     (Belyaev), and Derek Godfrey
    Derek Godfrey
    Derek Godfrey was a British actor who appeared in several films and BBC television dramatizations during the 1960s and 1970s....

     (Rakitin)
  • 1967 (first released in 1978), with Susannah York
    Susannah York
    Susannah York was a British film, stage and television actress. She was awarded a BAFTA as Best Supporting Actress for They Shoot Horses, Don't They? and was nominated for an Oscar and Golden Globe for the same film. She won best actress for Images at the 1972 Cannes Film Festival...

     (Natalya) and Ian McShane
    Ian McShane
    Ian David McShane is an English actor, director, producer, voice artist, and comedian.Despite appearing in numerous films, McShane is best known for his television roles, particularly the BBC's Lovejoy and HBO's Western drama Deadwood...

     (Belyaev)
  • 1985, with Eleanor Bron
    Eleanor Bron
    Eleanor Bron is an English stage, film and television actress and author.-Early life and family:Bron was born in 1938 in Stanmore, Middlesex, to a Jewish family of Eastern European origin...

     (Natalya), Shaun Scott
    Shaun Scott
    Shaun Scott is a British television actor, who appeared in the popular long-running series of The Bill where he played DI Chris Deakin. He also appeared as deputy lock keeper Tom Pike in the 1989 BBC TV comedy The River with David Essex...

     (Belyaev), and Ian Charleson
    Ian Charleson
    Ian Charleson was a Scottish stage and film actor. He is best known internationally for his starring role as Olympic athlete and missionary Eric Liddell, in the Oscar-winning 1981 film Chariots of Fire. He is also well known for his portrayal of Rev...

     (Rakitin)

Ballet

Turgenev's play was freely adapted by choreographer Frederick Ashton
Frederick Ashton
Sir Frederick William Mallandaine Ashton OM, CH, CBE was a leading international dancer and choreographer. He is most noted as the founder choreographer of The Royal Ballet in London, but also worked as a director and choreographer of opera, film and theatre revues.-Early life:Ashton was born at...

 as a one-act ballet of the same name
A Month in the Country (ballet)
A Month in the Country is a narrative ballet created in 1976 with choreography by Frederick Ashton, to the music of Frédéric Chopin arranged by John Lanchbery...

 for the Royal Ballet company in 1976. John Lanchbery
John Lanchbery
John Arthur Lanchbery OBE was an English, later Australian, composer and conductor, famous for his ballet arrangements.-Life:...

 arranged the score based on music by Frederic Chopin
Frédéric Chopin
Frédéric François Chopin was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist. He is considered one of the great masters of Romantic music and has been called "the poet of the piano"....

; the stage design was by Julia Trevelyan Oman. Natalia was first danced by Lynn Seymour
Lynn Seymour
Lynn Seymour is a retired Canadian ballerina and choreographer.She was born Lynn Springbett and studied ballet in Vancouver....

, for whom the role was created, and Anthony Dowell
Anthony Dowell
Sir Anthony James Dowell, CBE is a retired English ballet dancer and former Artistic Director of the Royal Ballet. He studied at the Hampshire School and The Royal Ballet Schools, before joining the Royal Ballet in 1961...

 danced the role of Beliaev. For research purposes, Frederick Ashton took Lynn Seymour and the rest of the ballet cast to see the London production of the play, with Dorothy Tutin in the lead.

The premiere ballet performance was presented at the Royal Opera House
Royal Opera House
The Royal Opera House is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply "Covent Garden", after a previous use of the site of the opera house's original construction in 1732. It is the home of The Royal Opera, The...

, Covent Garden on 12 February 1976, and the production was filmed that year by director Colin Nears for the BBC. Lynn Seymour also danced the role in New York.

Opera

Lee Hoiby
Lee Hoiby
Lee Henry Hoiby was an American composer and classical pianist. Best known as a composer of operas and songs, he was a disciple of composer Gian Carlo Menotti. Like Menotti, his works championed lyricism during a time when such compositions were deemed old fashioned and irrelevant to modern society...

 composed a two-act opera based on the play. Originally titled Natalia Petrovna, it was premiered in 1964 at New York City Opera
New York City Opera
The New York City Opera is an American opera company located in New York City.The company, called "the people's opera" by New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, was founded in 1943 with the aim of making opera financially accessible to a wide audience, producing an innovative choice of repertory, and...

.. It was revised as A Month in the Country; this form was premiered in Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...

in 1981, and has since been recorded.

External links

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