version). There are calls for the actors and for me. During one of the
calls I hear sounds of open hissing, drowned by the clapping and stamping.

On the whole I feel tired and annoyed. It was sickening though the play had
considerable success....

Theatre-goers say that they had never seen such a ferment in a theatre,
such universal clapping and hissing, nor heard such discussions among the
audience as they saw and heard at my play. And it has never happened before
at Korsh's that the author has been called after the second act.




November 24.


... It has all subsided at last, and I sit as before at my writing-table
and compose stories with untroubled spirit. You can't think what it was
like! ... I have already told you that at the first performance there was
such excitement in the audience and on the stage as the prompter, who has
served at the theatre for thirty-two years, had never seen. They made an
uproar, shouted, clapped and hissed; at the refreshment bar it almost came
to fighting, and in the gallery the students wanted to throw someone out
and two persons were removed by the police. The excitement was general....

... The actors were in a state of nervous tension. All that I wrote to you
and Maslov about their acting and attitude to their work must not, of
course, go any further. There is much one has to excuse and understand....
It turned out that the actress who was doing the chief part in my play had