Woe from Wit

The hero of this comedy, Alexander Chatsky, suffers not from madness but from his own reason. Rejected by society simply because he is smarter than those around him, he becomes a living reproach to the world he inhabits. And if society rejects an intelligent individual, what does that say about society itself?

Chatsky returns to the Moscow home of the nobleman Famusov after three years away. His beloved Sophia greets him coldly. He does not realize that he has arrived at the worst possible moment: Sophia is involved in a secret love affair with Molchalin, her father’s secretary, who lives in their house.

The characters argue about public service and personal ambition, ideals and morals, education and family. Here, the values of the “present age” collide with those of the “past age.”

Woe from Wit at SamArt features grand sets, historical costumes, and the entire theatre company on stage.

Director Alexander Kuzin:
“We are not aiming for a purely comic reading of the play. Rather, we expect a response from thoughtful people to a thoughtful comedy. In Tovstonogov’s production, Chatsky fainted from social pressure – that staging spoke to a different era (the premiere took place on October 20, 1962). We tried simply to read the text honestly – a text written 200 years ago.”