Redemption, Leo Tolstoy

Redemption

Contents
Characters
Act I: SCENE I
SCENE II
SCENE III
SCENE IV
SCENE V
SCENE VI
Act II SCENE I
SCENE II
SCENE III
SCENE IV

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 of Fédya’s boon companions.
KOROTKÓV. One of Fédya’s boon companions.
IVÁN PETROVICH ALEXÁNDROV.
VOZNESÉNSKY. Karénin’s secretary.
PETUSHKÓV. An artist.
ARTIMIEV.
WAITER IN THE PRIVATE ROOM AT THE RESTAURANT.
WAITER IN A LOW-CLASS RESTAURANT.
MANAGER OF THE SAME.
POLICEMAN.
INVESTIGATING MAGISTRATE.
MÉLNIKOV.
CLERK.
USHER.
YOUNG LAWYER.
PETRÚSHIN. A lawyer.
LADY.
ANOTHER OFFICER.
ATTENDANT AT LAW COURTS.
PROTOSOVS’ NURSE.
PROTOSOVS’ MAID.
AFRÉMOV’S FOOTMAN.
KARÉNINS’ FOOTMAN.

ACT I

SCENE I

Protosovs’ flat in Moscow. The scene represents a small dining room. ANNA PÁVLOVNA, a stout, gray-haired lady, tightly laced, is sitting alone at the tea-table on which is a samovár.

Enter NURSE carrying a tea-pot.

NURSE (enters R. I, over to table C.). Please, Madam, may I have some water?

ANNA PÁVLOVNA (sitting R. of table C.). Certainly. How is the baby now?

NURSE. Oh, restless, fretting all the time. There’s nothing worse than for a lady to nurse her child. She has her worries and the baby suffers for them. What sort of milk could she have, not peeping all night, and crying and crying?

SASHA enters R. I, strolls to L. of table C.

ANNA PÁVLOVNA. But I thought she was more calm now?

NURSE. Fine calm! It makes me sick to look at her. She’s just been writing something and crying all the time.

SASHA (to nurse). Lisa’s looking for you.

Sits in chair L. of table C.

NURSE. I’m going.

Exits R. I.

ANNA PÁVLOVNA. Nurse says she’s always crying. Why can’t she try and calm herself a little?

SASHA. Well, really, Mother, you’re amazing. How can you expect her to behave as if nothing had happened when she’s just left her husband and taken her baby with her?

ANNA PÁVLOVNA. Well, I don’t exactly, but that’s all over. If I approve of my daughter’s having left her husband, if I’m ever glad, well, you may be quite sure he deserved it. She has no reason to be miserable–on the contrary, she ought to be delighted at being freed from such a wretch.

SASHA. Mother! Why do you go on like this? It’s not the truth and you know it. He’s not a wretch, he’s wonderful. Yes, in spite of all his weakness.

ANNA PÁVLOVNA. I suppose you’d like her to wait till he’d spent every kopec they had, and smile sweetly when be brought his gypsy mistresses home with him.

SASHA. He hasn’t any mistresses.

ANNA PÁVLOVNA. There you go again. Why, the man’s simply bewitched you, but I can see through him, and he knows it. If I’d been Lisa, I’d left him a year ago.

SASHA. Oh, how easily you speak of these serious things.

ANNA PÁVLOVNA. Not easily, not easily at all. Do you suppose it’s agreeable for me to have my daughter admit her marriage a failure? But anything’s better than for her to throw away her life in a lie. Thank God, she’s made up her mind to finish with him for good.

SASHA. Maybe it won’t be for good.

ANNA PÁVLOVNA. It would be if only he’d give her a divorce.

SASHA. To what end?

ANNA PÁVLOVNA. Because she’s young and has the right to look for happiness.

SASHA. It’s awful to listen to you. How could she love some one else?

ANNA PÁVLOVNA. Why not? There are thousands better than your Fédya, and they’d be only too happy to marry Lisa.

SASHA. Oh, it’s not nice of you. I feel, I can tell, you’re thinking about Victor Karénin.

ANNA PÁVLOVNA. Why not? He loved her for ten years, and she him, I believe.

SASHA. Yes, but she doesn’t love him as a husband. They grew up together; they’ve just been friends.

ANNA PÁVLOVNA. Ah, those friendships! How should you know what keeps them warm! If only they were both free!

Enter a MAID L. U.

Well?

MAID. The porter’s just come back with an answer to the note.

ANNA PÁVLOVNA. What note?

MAID. The note Elizaveta Protosova sent to Victor Karénin.

ANNA PÁVLOVNA. Well? What answer?

MAID. Victor Karénin told the porter he’d be here directly.

ANNA PÁVLOVNA. Very well.

MAID exits L. U.

To SASHA.

Why do you suppose she sent for him? Do you know?

SASHA. Maybe I do and maybe I don’t.

ANNA PÁVLOVNA. You’re always so full of secrets.

SASHA. Ask Lisa, she’ll tell you.

ANNA PÁVLOVNA. Just as I thought! She sent for him at once.

SASHA. Yes, but maybe not for the reason you think.

ANNA PÁVLOVNA. Then what for?

SASHA. Why, Mother, Lisa cares just about as much for Victor Karénin as she does for her old nurse.

ANNA PÁVLOVNA. You’ll see. She wants consolation, a special sort of consolation.

SASHA. Really, it shows you don’t know Lisa at all to talk like this.

ANNA PÁVLOVNA. You’ll see. Sasha. Yes, I shall see.

ANNA PÁVLOVNA (alone to herself). And I am very glad. I’m very, very glad.

Enter MAID.

MAID. Victor Karénin.

ANNA PÁVLOVNA. Show him here and tell your mistress.

MAID shows in KARÉNIN and exits door R. I.

KARÉNIN (goes C. and stands behind table C.). (Shaking hands with Anna Pávlovna.) Elizaveta Andreyevna sent me a note to come at once. I should have been here to-night anyway. How is she? Well, I hope.

ANNA PÁVLOVNA. Not very. The baby has been upset again. However, she’ll be here in a minute. Will you have some tea?

KARÉNIN. No, thank you.

Sits chair R.

ANNA PÁVLOVNA. Tell me, do you know that he and she–.

KARÉNIN. Yes, I was here two days ago when she got this letter. Is she positive now about their separating?

ANNA PÁVLOVNA. Oh, absolutely. It would be impossible to begin it all over again.

KARÉNIN. Yes. To cut into living things and then draw back the knife is terrible. But are you sure she knows her mind?

ANNA PÁVLOVNA. I should think so. To come to this decision has caused her much pain. But now it’s final, and he understands perfectly that his behavior has made it impossible for him to come back on any terms.

KARÉNIN. Why?

ANNA PÁVLOVNA. After breaking every oath he swore to decency, how could he come back? And so why shouldn’t he give her her freedom?

KARÉNIN. What freedom is there for a woman still married?

ANNA PÁVLOVNA. Divorce. He promised her a divorce and we shall insist upon it.

KARÉNIN. But your daughter was so in love with him?

ANNA PÁVLOVNA. Her love has been tried out of existence. Remember she had everything to contend with: drunkenness, gambling, infidelity– what was there to go on loving in such a person?

KARÉNIN. Love can do anything.

ANNA PÁVLOVNA. How can one love a rag torn by every wind? Their affairs were in dreadful shape; their estate mortgaged; no money anywhere. Finally his uncle sends them two thousand rubles to pay the interest on the estate. He takes it, disappears, leaves Lisa home and the baby sick–when suddenly she gets a note