A Month in the Country | |
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![]() Konstantin Stanislavski (left) and Olga Knipper (right) as Rakitin and Natalya in the Moscow Art Theatre's production in 1909 | |
Written by | Ivan Turgenev |
Characters | Natalya Petrovna Mikhail Rakitin Aleksei Belyaev Vera Shpigelsky Arkadi Islaev Lizaveta Bogdanovna Bolshintsov Schaaf Anna Semenovna Kolya Katya Matvei |
Date premiered | 1872 |
Original language | Russian |
Genre | Comedy |
Setting | The Islaev country estate in the 1840s |
A Month in the Country (Russian: Месяц в деревне, romanized: Mesiats v derevne) is a play in five acts by Ivan Turgenev, his only well-known work for the theatre.[1] Originally titled The Student, it was written in France between 1848 and 1850 and first published in 1855 as Two Women. The play was not staged until 1872, when it was given as A Month in the Country at a benefit performance for the Moscow actress Ekaterina Vasilyeva (1829–1877), who was keen to play the leading role of Natalya Petrovna.[2]