Redemption and Two Other Plays

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Title: Redemption and Two Other Plays
Author: Leo Tolstoy et al
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on October 17, 2003]
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REDEMPTION AND TWO OTHER PLAYS
By LEO TOLSTOY
Introduction By ARTHUR HOPKINS

CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION BY ARTHUR HOPKINS REDEMPTION THE
POWER OF DARKNESS FRUITS OF CULTURE

INTRODUCTION
After making a production of _Redemption_, the chief feeling of the
producer is one of deep regret that Tolstoi did not make more use of the
theatre as a medium. His was the rare gift of vitalization: the ability to
breathe life into word-people which survives in them so long as there is
any one left to turn up the pages they have made their abode.
In the world of writing, many terms that should be illuminative have
become meaningless. So often has the barren been called "pregnant,"
the chill of death "the breath of life," the atrophied "pulsating," that
when we really come upon a work with beating heart we find it difficult
to give it place that has not already been stuffed to suffocation with
misplaced dummies.
We seat it at table with staring wax figures and bid it to join the feast.
There is no exclusion act in art, no passport bureau, not even hygienic
segregation.
In writing the briefest introduction to Tolstoi's work, I am appointed by
the publisher, a sort of reception committee of one to escort the work to

some fitting place where it may enjoy the surroundings and deference it
deserves.
The place to which I escort it is built of words, but what words have
been left me by the long procession of previous committees? Where
they have been truthfully used they have been glorified, and offer all
the rarer material for my structure, but how often have they been
subjected to base use. Perhaps some day we will learn the proper
respect of such simple words as love and truth and life, and then when
we meet them in books we shall know how to greet them.
The study of Redemption is so simple that it needs no illumination from
me. The characters may walk in strange lands without introduction.
They are part of us. Fédya is in all of us. His one cry "There has always
been so much lacking between what I felt and what I could do"
instantly makes him brother to all mankind. His simultaneous physical
degeneration and spiritual regeneration is the glory that all people have
invested in death. Tolstoi's cry against convention that disregards
spiritual struggle, and system that ignores human growth, will find
answering cries in many breasts in many lands.
Utterly disregarding effect, technique or method, Tolstoi has explored
his own soul and there touched hands with countless other souls, and
since he has trod the path of countless millions who will come after
him, the mementos of his journey will long be sought.
ARTHUR HOPKINS.
The translation of Redemption here published is the one produced by
Mr. Arthur Hopkins at the Plymouth Theatre, New York, in the season
of 1918-1919. The part of FÉDYA was played by Mr. John Barrymore.

REDEMPTION

CHARACTERS
THEODORE VASÍLYEVICH PROTOSOV (FÉDYA). ELISABETH
ANDRÉYEVNA PROTOSOVA (LISA). His wife. MÍSHA. Their son.
ANNA PÁVLOVNA. Lisa's mother. SASHA. Lisa's younger,
unmarried sister. VICTOR MICHAELOVITCH KARÉNIN. SOPHIA
DMÍTRIEVNA KARÉNINA. PRINCE SERGIUS DMÍTRIEVICH
ABRÉSKOV. MASHA. A gypsy girl. IVÁN MAKÁROVICH. An old
gypsy man. Masha's parent. NASTASÏA IVÁNOVNA. An old gypsy

woman. Masha's parent. OFFICER. MUSICIAN. FIRST GYPSY
MAN. SECOND GYPSY MAN. GYPSY WOMAN. GYPSY CHOIR.
DOCTOR. MICHAEL ALEXÁNDROVICH AFRÉMOV. STÁKHOV.
One of Fédya's boon companions. BUTKÉVICH. One