Article

Name: The dramatic work by Alexander Ostrovsky “Svoi lyudi – sochtem-sya!” in Kazan theater criticism of 1877: On the evolution of reception

Authors: Ivan V. Panamarev

National Research Tomsk State University,Tomsk, Russian Federation

In the section Study of literature

Abstract:

The article examines an anonymous review of a Kazan production of Alexander Ostrovsky’s “Svoi lyudi – sochtemsya!” (“It’s a Family Affair – We’ll Settle It Ourselves!”) (1850), published on April 3, 1877. Given the cultural parity between metropolitan and provincial stages in Imperial Russia, this review is analyzed as a significant element in the history of the play’s reception. The comedy is juxtaposed with the short play “Nochnoye” (“Night Grazing”) (1855) by Moscow dramatist and folklorist Mikhail Stakhovich, which was staged during the same theatrical evening. This comparison reveals striking similarities: a prereform setting, the presence of offstage characters, the leitmotif of hardship, and the antinomy between the urban and provincial worlds. The analysis focuses on the reviewer’s emphasis on the “temporal gap” between the play’s publication and its 1877 staging, a distance shaped by the shifting socio-cultural context of the time. Accordingly, the critic posits that character acting, characterized by the integration of a role’s historical context via external elements and enhanced by psychological depth, serves as the critical determinant of a production’s success. The article concludes that the actors’ mastery of characterization was essential in bridging the pre-reform era with the contem-porary audience’s sensibilities. Ultimately, this regional perspective reveals the transformation of a dramatic work’s meaning due to territorial and historical factors, underscoring the semantic coherence of provincial theatrical works. A comparative study of Russian drama and Ostrovsky’s provincial stage works identifies emergent relationships grounded in the semantic unity of the theatrical program, acknowledging its pragmatic dimension.

Keywords: Alexander Ostrovsky, Mikhail Stakhovich, Kazan theater, theater criticism, Kazanskiy Bir-zhevoy Listok, provincial theater, “Svoi lyudi – sochtemsya!”, “Nochnoye”

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