He Who Gets Slapped and Other Plays

Book excerpt: Leonid Andreyev was once considered one of Russia's greatest dramatists, but his opposition to the Bolshevik Revolution and the Communist government's unilateral support of naturalism on the stage conspired to undermine his career. He was imprisoned, died in poverty, and has become increasingly obscure. Andreyev is symbolic and romantic. Fate and Chance are the two dark, unknown, at times brutal forces which dwell ever before his mind's eye. He sees human beings in the form of ghosts and ghosts in the form of human beings. Andreyev's best-known play, He Who Gets Slapped tells the story of a famous writer who takes a job as a circus clown in order to escape his past. In this carnival of human outcasts, Andreyev fashions a meaningful portrait of an intellectual's struggle to exist in a world ruled by Fate, Chance, and the almighty dollar. Also included are two extraordinarily haunting plays adapted from Andreyev's short stories: Call of the Revolution and The Serpent's Tale.