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Fortune’s Fool Teaching Resources of 24

Teaching resources


Fortune’s Fool at The Old Vic

Ivan Turgenev: His Story

Turgenev: Life and Works

A Nation in Flux – Historical Timeline

Fortune’s Fool Synopsis

Act Breakdown

Character Breakdown

Fortune’s Fool Themes

Portrait on the Russian Country Estate

In conversation with... Lucy Briggs-Owen (Olga) Oliver Bagwell Purefoy (ASM) Mike Poulton (Writer)

Bibliography

Contents

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Fortune’s Fool Cast

Lucy Briggs- OwenOlga

Daniel CerqueiraTrembinsky

Patrick CreminYegoru/s Kuzovkin/ Ivanov

Dyfan DwyforPyotr

Janet FullerlovePraskovyaIvanova

Paul HamVaskau/s Yeletsky/Pyotr

Richard HendersKarpatchov

William HoustonKuzovkin

Simon MarkeyAnpadistu/s Torpatchov/Trembinsky/Karpatchov

John McAndrewIvanov

Richard McCabeTropatchov

Bryonie PritchardAkulinau/s PraskovyaIvanova

Emily TuckerMashau/s Olga

AlexanderVlahosYeletsky


‘He wrote fictions and dramas, but the great drama of his life was the struggle for a better state of things in Russia. His large nature overflowed with the love of justice but he was also the stuff of which glories are made’ Henry James on Ivan Turgenev

Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev, a Russian novelist, playwright and poet was born on 9 November 1818 in Oryol, Russia. He was born into a wealthy family, his mother, Varvara Petrovna was a wealthy heiress and his father a retired soldier. When Turgenev was still young he moved with his mother and father to her vast estate at Spasskoye. He lived in a large manor house and within the estate his mother also owned ‘all its villages and most peasants in them; every horse, cow, pig, goose, even the nightingales that sang in the trees’ (Pritchett: 2012). The estate included 20 villages and several staff, ‘serfs.’ Turgenev’s mother was quite a harsh woman and was often abusive towards him.

Turgenev studied philosophy at the University of St Petersburg and later decided to further pursue it in Berlin, it was here that he grew a love for Europe, ‘I flung myself head foremost into that German ocean required to purify and regenerate me ... and when I emerged I found myself a Westerniser, and so I have always remained.’ (Turgenev:1862)

On his way to Germany the boat he was on caught fire and Turgenev was said to cause quite a scene, and acted very cowardly. Rumours about the event followed him for the rest of his career.

Throughout his career Turgenev wrote several plays as well as short stories and became a major figure in 19th Century Russian Literature. Fortune’s Fool (the Russian title is Nakhlebnik, which roughly translates as ‘sponger’ or ‘hanger-on’) was written and submitted for publication in 1848, however it was not until 1857 that it was published. Turgenev’s first major writing that gained him recognition was a collection of short stories, which were based on his observations of peasant life and nature, while hunting in the forests around his mother’s estate. Most of the stories were published in a single volume in 1852, with others being added in later editions. It is said that A Sportsman’s Notebook contributed to Alexander II’s decision to liberate serfs. In 1852 Turgenev’s writing brought him a month of detention in St Petersburg and 18 months of house arrest for ‘suspicious revolutionary activities,’ after he wrote an obituary for Nikolai Gogal. The obituary was full of praise for Gogol and was later banned from being printed but was still printed in Moscow.

When Turgenev was 25 he met a young Spanish singer Louis Viardot and his wife Pauline. Turgenev fell for her and spent many years following her tours across Europe and staying with the Viardot family at their home. Turgenev never married but was known to have had several affairs; one of which resulted in the birth of an illegitimate daughter Paulinette. Her mother was a seamstress at the Spasskoye estate and after she was born he persuaded Pauline Viardot to bring her up with her family.

In later years Turgenev had a strained relationship with his mother, she had planned for him to have a career in the Russian Imperial Service, however she had more interest in remaining in Europe to be a writer, when she died in 1850 they were still estranged. Turgenev inherited the entire estate, including all assets.

In the last years of his life Turgenev was diagnosed with cancer of the spine and he died on 3 September 1883 in France.

Ivan Turgenev HIS STORY


Turgenev LIFE & Selected WORKS

1818 – Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev is born on 9 November 1818 in Oryol, Russia

1833 – Turgenev attends University in Moscow

1834–1837 Turgenev attends St Petersburg University

1838–1841 Turgenev studies at Berlin University

1841 – Turgenev joins the Russian civil service

1842 – The birth of Turgenev’s illegitimate daughter Paulinette

1843–1845 Turgenev works for the Ministry of Interior

1843 – A Rash Thing to Do

– Meets Pauline Viardot, and later falls in love with her

1847–1850 Turgenev moves to France

1847 – It Tears Where It is Thin

– Pyetushkov

1850 – The Diary of a Superfluous Man

– A Month in the Country

– Turgenev’s mother dies and he inherits her estate

1851 – A conversation on the highway

– A Provincial Lady

1852 – Turgenev is imprisoned for a month for suspicious revolutionary activities

– A Sportsman’s Sketches

1856 – Rudin

1857 – Fortune’s Fool

1859 – A House of Gentlefolk

1860 – On the Eve

1862 – Father and Children

1867 – Smoke

– The Brigadier

1869 – A Strange Story

1870 – King Lear of the Steppes

1872 – Spring Torrents

1874 – The Live Relic

– Punin and Baburin

1877 – Virgin Soil

1879 – Turgenev receives an honorary degree of Doctor of Civil Law from the University of Oxford

1881 – The Song of Triumphant Love

– Old Portraits

– A Desperate Character

1883 – A Fire at Sea

– Turgenev dies on 3 September aged 65 in Bougival, France

https://www.google.co.uk/search?espv=210&es_sm=93&q=bougival&stick=H4sIAAAAAAAAAGOovnz8BQMDgyUHnxCnfq6-gaFFoUWZEphpWpFnVqwln51spV-Qml-Qk6qfkpqcmlicmhJfkFpUnJ9nlZKZmiK_eFX8yZu57uccXLaFVAr771298zoARkc431YAAAA&sa=X&ei=RTaOUpKFFomphAfty4CgCA&ved=0CNsBEJsTKAIwFg


A nation in flux Historical Timeline

1762 – Catherine the Great becomes leader of Russia after seizing power from her husband. She is considered an ‘enlightened ruler’ and the country flourishes under her reign.

1796 – Catherine dies and her son Paul I is crowned Emperor. Paul has many contrasting views to his mother – he is idealistic, religious and at times despotic.

1801 – Alexander I succeeds to the throne after his father is assassinated. The new tsar’s early reign is characterised by social and political reforms, including to education, government, censorship and legal systems. Much of these are later reversed, however, because of opposition from the nobility.

1809 – Dramatist, novelist and father of modern Russian realism, Nikolai Gogol is born.

1812 – France, under Napoleon’s leadership, invades Russia but the campaign fails and by December, French troops are withdrawn.

1815 – End of the Napoleonic Wars, which have lasted for a tumultuous period of 12 years. Ivan Turgenev is born in Russia’s Oriol province.

1821 – Russian novelist and philosopher Fyodor Dostoevsky is born.

1825 – Alexander I dies without an heir. He is succeeded by his younger brother Nicholas I, despite an attempted coup by the Decembrist revolutionaries. Nicholas I is a militant and reactionary leader. During his authoritarian reign, many civil institutions are reshaped according to military tradition, bureaucracy flourishes, and Russia’s cultural and spiritual life is strictly controlled.

1828 – Master novelist Leo Tolstoy is born in Tula province, Russia.

1832 – Russia declares Poland a region of the Russian empire, abolishing the kingdom’s independent constitution, army and legislative assembly.

– Turgenev studies at the University of St Petersburg.

1836 – Gogol’s play The Government Inspector is first published.

1837 – Inauguration of the first Russian public railway, running between St Petersburg and Pavlovsk. Turgenev studies at the University of Berlin.

1842 – Prominent revolutionary agitator Mikhail Bakunin, a friend of Turgenev’s, leaves Russia for western Europe. Having returned to Russia, Turgenev works for the Ministry of the Interior.

1847 – Revolutionary and activist, Alexander Herzen, flees Russia. Turgenev lives in France to be near the married opera singer Pauline Viardot.

1848 – The European Revolutions, a series of political upheavals beginning in Sicily and France, sweeps throughout most of Europe with the exception of Russia, Spain and Scandinavia. Despite similar aims, there is little coordination or cooperation among the revolutionaries in different countries and within a year, reactionary forces regain control and the revolutions collapse. Contributing factors to the unrest include dissatisfaction with political leadership, demands for democracy and participation in government, economic grievances, calls for social justice and an upsurge in nationalism.

– Turgenev writes Fortune’s Fool. The play is banned by Russian censors and remains unpublished for almost a decade.

1849 – Dostoevsky is jailed for subversive activities and sentenced to death. He is saved by a last-minute reprieve but is sent to a Siberian labour camp.

– Turgenev’s mother dies, leaving her son as master of the family’s extensive estate. He frees many of his serfs before official emancipation in 1861.

– A Sportsman’s Sketches, Turgenev’s collection of stories about the Russian countryside, is published. Nikolai Gogol dies. Turgenev writes an obituary in praise of his much-admired contemporary, but this leads to his own arrest, imprisonment and exile to his estate, where he remains under police supervision for two years.

1853-54 Outbreak of the Crimean War, a dispute over territories in the Ottoman Empire. Russia fights against an alliance of Britain, France, Turkey and Sardinia.

1855 – Nicholas I dies and is succeeded by Alexander II. One of Russia’s most liberal tsars, his reforms to education, industry, property, the judiciary and the press prove divisive among his people.

1856 – The Crimean War ends with the Treaty of Paris. Russia loses territory and her naval rights in the Black Sea.

– Fortune’s Fool is finally published.


1860 – Russian playwright Anton Chekhov is born.

1861 – Alexander II abolishes serfdom, granting freedom to 22 million serfs. Since they must rent or buy land from their masters, however, many are left in hopeless poverty and debt. Mikhail Bakunin, meanwhile, escapes from Siberia where he has been exiled following his extradition back to Russia some ten years earlier. This is also the year in which university students begin protests against the government.

– Fortune’s Fool is staged for the first time since being banned but is only performed in part.

– Turgenev’s Fathers and Sons is published. He leaves Russia to live in Germany, London and then France.

1864 – Alexander II introduces the Zemstvo system of local government. Peasants are permitted to participate in the Zemstvo through elections based on the amount of land they hold.

1866 – Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment is published.

1868 – Writer and revolutionary Maxim Gorky is born.

1869 – Tolstoy’s great epic War and Peace is published in the same year as Dostoevsky’s The Idiot.

1877–80 Living in France, Turgenev develops friendships with Alphonse Daudet, Gustave Flaubert, Edmond de Goncourt and Emile Zola. He writes several of his best-known short stories, including First Love and Torrents of Spring. Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina is published followed by Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov in 1880.

– Henry James hosts a dinner in Turgenev’s honour at The Reform Club in London, after Turgenev receives an honorary degree from the University of Oxford.

1881 – Revolutionaries assassinate Alexander II. His son Alexander III returns Russia to autocratic rule, ushering in anti-terrorism laws that curb civil rights and freedom of the press.

– Turgenev dies in France. His body is taken to St Petersburg where it is buried with national honours.

1896 – Chekhov writes The Seagull.

1904 – Chekhov dies.

1905 – Year of revolutionary unrest in Russia culminates in the establishment of constitutional monarchy.

1906 – Gorky’s novel The Mother, a classic of revolutionary literature, is published.

1910 – Tolstoy dies.

1917 – Revolution brings an end to the tsarist autocracy and leads to the creation of Soviet Russia.


The play is set in Russia in 1848 over a 24-hour period.

A pair of newlyweds arrive at their country estate to be welcomed by Kuzovkin, (also known as (Vassily Semyonitch) the penniless gentleman-in-residence. The staff have been busy preparing the residence as the lady of the house Olga Petrovna is bringing her new husband, Yeletsky, home after 13 years away. She left when her mother died and has not returned since. Kuzovkin, is keen to impress Olga and her new husband as he is lived in the house for many years and is keen to remain. Their wealthy and mischievous neighbour Tropatchov calls by to welcome them home, after insisting that he give them both a tour of the gardens Tropatchov invites himself to join them for lunch. Yeletsky agrees and insists that everyone join them including Kuzovkin and his friend Ivanov.

During the lunch, Tropatchov, keen to cause trouble ensures that everyone is consumed by alcohol, especially Kuzovkin. As Kuzovkin gets more and more drunk Tropatchov presses him for more information about his dispute with the courts over his land and how he has come to live at the house. Kuzovkin explains that a family dispute has left him with no land and no money to pay the legal costs. Tropatchov slyly makes fun of Kuzovkin and encourages everyone to do the same but Yeletsky is more sympathetic, offering help.

Fuelled by champagne the proceedings degenerate, and Kuzovkin falls further as Tropatchov continues to mock him, at one point placing a dunces hat on his head without him noticing. Kuzovkin becomes angry and shouts, accusing them of mocking him because of his class and status. In a traumatic ending to Act I Kuzovkin reveals that he will be the one laughing as he has a big secret which would change everything – when pushed to reveal it he tells Yeletsky that he is in fact Olga’s father.

The next day Yeletsky tells Olga that unfortunately Kuzovkin caused a great scene the previous evening which caused great offence and because of this Kuzovkin has agreed to leave immedietly. Olga presses him for more information but he will not tell her anymore – she says that she would like to speak to Kuzovkin alone before he leaves. Olga asks Kuzovkin what happened the day before and asks if what she overheard is true – eventually Kuzovkin tells her that it is before explaining the story. Olga asks him not to leave but Kuzovkin insists that he must.

Yeletsky returns and asks Kuzovkin to apologise to Tropatchov and tell him, as he told Yeletsky, that what he said yesterday was not true before he leaves. He apologises and Tropatchov accepts. When they are alone Yeletsky accuses Kuzovkin of lying again, manipulating his wife by telling her the story – which Kuzovkin himself told him was untrue this morning. Yeletsky offers Kuzovkin twenty thousand roubels which Kuzovkin declines insisting he will not be insulted. Yeletsky leaves to take a walk with Tropatchov, at which point Olga re-enters and insists that he take the money to buy his estate back, noting that he cannot ‘say no to his daughter.’ He accepts, and when everyone re-joins Yelensky announces that he has discovered that the case of Kuzovkin’s land dispute has been dropped and the courts have awarded Kuzovkin his land back. Everyone rejoices and Kuzovkin is sent in his way, whilst Olga retires to her room crying.

Fortune’s Fool SYNOPSIS


Act I

The butler of the house, Trembinsky, is in the main dining room organising the preparations for the arrival of the master and the mistress of the house. He is keen to get it sorted quickly as he is expecting the arrival of the master and mistress of the house at any moment. He is quizzing Pyotr to find out if the band is ready and the gardens are prepared. Pyotr informs him that they are but then Trembinsky shouts at him for having been outside to find out, reminding him he is a footman.

Kuzovkin enters, much to Trembinsky’s horror, although he is unsure how to get rid of him. Trembinsky informs Kuzovkin that the young mistress and her new husband will be arriving home at any minute and perhaps it would be best if he was not present. Kuzovkin informs him that he will be staying, to which Trembinsky replies that perhaps he should put on a smarter suit, Kuzovkin tells him that it is his only suit. Trembinsky remarks that he should sit in the corner out of the way.

Ivanov, a neighbour and friend of Kuzovkin arrives and stands nervously in the doorway, he asks to speak to Kuzovkin but Trembinsky informs him that it is not a good time – Kuzovkin brushes Trembinsky aside and welcomes Ivanov in to finish a game of chess. Trembinsky and Pyotr exit to finish preparations.

Kuzovkin invites Ivanov to join him at his small table in the corner. Ivanov seems unsure and suggests that perhaps as the house is so busy they should go to his room to finish the game, Kuxovokin tells him that wouldn’t work as his room is also the linen cupboard. Ivanov suggests that they go to his house instead, Kuzovkin disagrees and says they should stay to see the mistress, Olga Petrovna and her new husband. Ivanov is unsure, suggesting that they will not want to meet either of them as they are both below their class and might even throw them out. He asks Kuzovkin if he is worried that the master will no longer allow him to live in the house. Kuzovkin tells him that he is worried but unlike Ivanov, who has also fallen on hard times, he has nowhere else to go. He explains that he has lost everything and and relies on the support of the house to survive. Ivanov apologises and reassures him that the new master would not throw him out, the last one didn’t and he was a cruel man so he is sure that the new master will allow him to stay.

Kuzovkin tells Ivanov he is sure Olga would have married a nice man as she is such a kind and gentle person. He is sure she will defend him as he has known her for so long and loved her since she was a child. Ivanov remarks that she may not remember him, she was a young girl when she left after her mother had died. Ivanov reminds him that she has been living with her aunt in St Petersburg since that time so she may be a different person now – not as kind as she was previously having lived in a big city all that time.

Fortune’s Fool ACT BREAKDOWN

Below: Actor Richard McCabe and director Lucy Bailey in rehearsal

Photos by Sheila Burnett


He suggests that Kuzovkin should prepare for the worst, Kuzovkin tells him that he is wrong and that he does not wish to discuss it any further. They continue playing chess and bickering.

Suddenly there is a lot of noise in the hall and they are told that Olga and her husband have arrived. After deciphering if it was a false alarm or not– panic sets in and everyone rushes to their places to greet them.

Olga arrives ushering her new husband, Yeletsky into the hall. Olga is very excited to be back and introduces Yeletsky to all the staff. Kuzovkin interrupts to introduce himself and Olga appears to immediately know who he is and greets him enthusiastically. She does however call Vassily Petrvitch – Kuzovkin does not correct her, happy to have been greeted so warmly. Yeletsky asks Olga who Kuzovkin is and he informs her that he lives there. Kuzovkin introduces Ivanov and again Olga responds warmly and tells them that they are both very welcome in the house. She excuses herself and Yeletsky to take him on a tour of the house.

As they exit Trembinsky orders everyone back to work, to prepare the house for lunch. Pyotr advises Trembinsky that he should get the accounts in order as Yeletsky will probably want to inspect them – Trembinsky looks panicked as Pyotr leaves. Trembinsky asks Kuzovkin again if he is leaving – he informs him that he will not, Trembinsky leaves in a fury.

Once Kuzovkin and Ivanov are alone they begin to discuss Olga, Kuzovkin tells Inavov that he was wrong that she would not remember him! Ivanov questions why she called him Vassily Petrovitch when his name is Vassily Semyonitch if she knew who he was. Kuzovkin tells him that it doesn’t matter at all and that it’s all the same. Ivanov again says that he should leave as he does not feel welcome – Kuzovkin disagrees.

Olga and Yeletsky re-enter discussing the house and how beautiful it is. Yeletsky tells Olga that he needs to speak with Trembinsky so, much to his delight, Olga asks ‘Vassily Petrovitch’ and Ivanov to join her on a walk in the garden, they leave. Trembinsky enters and Yeletsky questions him about the accounts, he informs him that there are 384 serfs on the estate according to the census, Yeletsky notes that that was taken nine years ago and asks Trembinsky to recount. He also asks him to find out exactly how much land there is in the estate, again he estimates at 850 acres with 6,000 acres of forest – Yeletsky asks him to double check. Conversation turns to Kuzovkin when Yeletsky asks who he is. Pyotr explains that he is a poor gentleman who was a friend of the family and was taken in by Olga’s father when he was, ‘down on his luck.’ Trembinsky adds that the old master kept him for his amusement, and that he has lived in the house for over 30 years. Yeletsky tells Trembinsky he should return tomorrow at 5am for a meeting and dismisses him.

The neighbour Tropatchov arrives, uninvited, although Yeletsky is hesitant he invites him in. Tropatchov marches in and introduces himself as their ‘nearest neighbour.’ Yeletsky is quite taken aback by him but listens to his stories and invites him to join them for lunch. Tropatchov is shocked that Kuzovkin is at the house stating that he should have not intruded on their ‘homecoming.’ He also introduces Karpatchov, who he has taken in as he has become bankrupt.

Olga re-enters and is re-introduced to Tropatchov. Tropatchov suggests to Yeletsky that he could ask Kuzovkin and Ivanov to leave but Yeletsky insists that they should stay, Olga leaves to get changed. Tropatchov asks Yeletsky if he could show him around the gardens as he knows them well and may have some tips, Yeletsky agrees hesitantly.

Kuzovkin and Ivanov are left alone in the house. Ivanov admits that Olga is enchanting but warns Kuzovkin of her husband as he doesn’t like ‘the company that he keeps.’ Trembinsky enters getting the table ready for lunch and snipes again at Kuzovkin. The men return from the garden and take their seats at the table,

Above: Lucy Briggs-Owen and Alexander Vlahos with members of the castPhotos by Sheila Burnett


Yeletsky insists that Kuzovkin and Ivanov join them and sets more chairs at the table. As the lunch begins Tropatchov decides for his amusement to get Kuzovkin drunk, he then presses him for information about his ongoing court case over his dispute. After being questioned, Kuzovkin explains that the estate is relatively small, with just over 550 acres and 50 serfs. He has been fighting the case for 27 years but does not have the funds or support to do so. Throughout this Tropatchov has been ordering Karpatchov to re-fill his drink, feeling more confident as a consequence of the alcohol, he divulges even more of the story to the group. Kuzovkin is tricked into feeling as though he is supported by his ‘friends’ at the table.

At this moment, to further humiliate him, Tropatchov orders Kuzovkin to sing them a song, noting that his old master used to make him, ‘sing for his supper’ and he would apprear very ungrateful if he refused. Yeletsky tells him that he does not need to but Tropatchov continues to push him. Eventually he sings but stops after a minute, Tropatchov tells him he must continue and he will pour the glass of champagne down his throat to encourage him. Kuzovkin protests and asks for Yeletsky’s support who tells them to stop but Tropatchov shouts at Kuzovkin telling him that he should work for his food and since his master died he has done nothing and should be ashamed. Eventually Yeletsky intervenes and Kuzovkin apologises, as does Tropatchov – although he continues to give Kuzovkin more to drink and whispers something to Karpatchov who leaves the room. Kuzovkin continues with his story but during his tale Karpatchov returns with a paper ‘dunces’ hat which Tropatchov manages to put on Kuzovkin’s head without him noticing. Everyone, except Ivanov, Pyotr and Yeletsky howl with laughter as Kuzovkin begins to break down in tears, he asks them why they are bullying him. Yeletsky tells Ivanov that he needs to take Kuzovkin away so that he can sleep it off. Kuzovkin shouts back in a rage saying to Yeletsky that he has well and truly put him back in his place, allowing him to be treated like an idiot and that there is something he could tell him to ‘wipe the smiles of their faces.’ Ivanov tries to stop him but before he can shouting in rage Kuzovkin questions Yeletsky about his wife, asking if he knows who she really is, before revealing that they have got it wrong, she is not the ‘child of an ancient and noble family,’ she is in fact his daughter!

Act II Act II begins in Olga’s study where she is looking through photo albums, lost in thought. Praskovya Ivanova tells Olga that she must choose one of the servants to be promoted to a lady’s maid suggesting either Akulina or Marfa. She is not too keen when Olga suggests another maid, Masha as she thinks she would be unsuitable. She exits leaving Olga with the task of deciding.

Yeletsky enters, having been called for by Olga, they briefly discuss the gardens but Yeletsky grows impatient telling Olga he will return when Olga has decided what she wants to discuss. Olga begs him not to leave and asks him what happened yesterday at lunch as there is an odd atmosphere between them, she is sure that there was an incident at lunch. Yeletsky confides that he should have stopped it sooner, and there was an incident with Kuzovkin which to begin with was quite funny but it got out of hand. Kuzovkin became very drunk and said something that he shouldn’t. He explains that he has dealt with it and ordinarily he would have ignored it but as there were servants present he could not.

Olga questions him further and Yeletsky explains that he has asked Kuzovkin to leave as they both agree that it would be difficult for him to remain there after what he said. Olga is shocked by this. Yeletsky tells her that if he were to stay it would be an embarrassment for both of them and that he will ensure to find him somewhere to stay and provide him with money. Olga challenges him and suggests that sending him away in order to keep the opinion of their servants is a very severe punishment and that it is unfair as he has lived there for many years. Yeletsky apologises but tells her that it is the only way and that the decision has been made. Olga tells him she must see Kuzovkin before he leaves, Yeletsky advises that this is not wise. Olga asks Pyotr to call Kuzovkin and tells Yeletsky that she would like him to leave when he arrives, Yeletsky begins to protest but gives in and leaves.

When Kuzovkin arrives he informs Olga that he has packed and will stay with Ivanov until somewhere suitable is found. Olga questions Kuzovkin about his reasons for leaving suggesting that he is not entirely happy with the decision and presses him to tell her what happened yesterday. Kuzovkin begs Olga not to make him tell her as he is already incredibly embarrassed by it and should be punished for it. Olga tells him that she will not be shocked by anything and she would rather know, asking him if he remembers exactly what it was he said – he insists that he was drunk and that he cannot tell her. He also tells her that his heart


is broken, he loves her very much and is sorry that this has happened. Eventually she confides that she heard the conversation last night and wants to know if it is true – is he her father. He answers yes.

Olga is shocked by this and demands that he tell her everything. Kuzovkin hesitantly tells her. He explains that when he was 20 he lost everything and Olga’s father came to the rescue by taking him in. He had been living there for two years when her father met her mother, Kuzovkin fell in love with her immediately. He explains that before Olga was born her mother had two sons but they both died, after this happened her father became a rotten, violent man who drank too much. Eventually he turned to other women and was away for long periods of time, when he returned he began to beat her mother.

Eventually her mother grew lonely and turned to Kuzovkin. Her father died shortly after, falling off his horse. Her mother was deeply damaged by this and was never the same again. Olga asks Kuzovkin if he has any proof for this and he explains that he doesn’t and had he not made, ‘such a fool of himself’ at the dinner no one would know anything. Olga says that she believes him, but the truth may destroy everything now as she no longer knows who she is. Kuzovkin tells Olga that he loves her but that he will leave immediately and never bother her again, Yeletsky re-enters.

Kuzovkin explains to Yeletsky that he has made peace with Olga and will be leaving. Pyotr enters and informs Yeletsky that Tropatchov has arrived, Yeletsky tells him to tell him that he is not in but he is informed that he has already invited himself in. He agrees to see him and asks Kuzovkin if, before he goes he will apologise to Tropatchov and tell him that what he said yesterday was not true.

Tropatchov and Yeletsky enter, followed by Kuzovkin, Tropatchov is unimpressed to see Kuzovkin but Kuzovkin apologies for his behavior. Yeletsky leaves to speak to Olga, Kuzovkin goes to leave but Tropatchov stops him, demanding to know why he said he was Olga’s father. He replies that he was drunk and nothing more, Tropatchov continues to pester him but Yeletsky interrupts and tells him to leave Kuzovkin alone and orders him not to bully him again. Tropatchov is shocked and embarrassed and assures him that he will stop. He asks Yeletsky if everything is OK, he assures him it is and that he has a lot on his mind. Kuzovkin again makes to leave but is stopped by Yeletsky who tells him he must stay as he has something to say to him, he politely asks Tropatchov to leave the room.

When they are alone Yeletsky accuses Kuzovkin of lying again – telling his wife that the story is true, he accuses him of trying to take their money by manipulating Olga into believing his story. Kuzovkin protests and tries to leave again but Yeletsky insists that he take twenty thousand roubles. Kuzovkin tells him that he will not and he will not be insulted. Tropatchov re-appears again.

Olga enters and Kuzovkin asks why she told Yeletsky, she tells him that she cannot hide anything from her husband. She tells him that if he would prefer to stay Yeletsky will agree to it – she can persuade him, he tells her he cannot – it would not be right. Olga accepts this but hands him an envelope and tells him to buy back his house with it saying he could not deny a request from his daughter, finally he agrees and they share a brief goodbye. Tropatchov and Yeletsky re-enter, Yeletsky quietly asks Olga if he has taken the money she nods that he has to which he responds, ‘thank god…didn’t I tell you that man was a liar?’

Yeletsky takes Kuzovkin to one side to double check that he has accepted it, he asks if it was a lie and he replies yes, ‘a black one.’ Yeletsky then announces to the room that the tables have turned and Kuzovkin case is over – the courts have awarded him his estate back. They all rejoice and Yeletsky orders champagne to toast Kuzovkin’s success. As Kuzovkin makes to leave there Olga and Pyotr are tearful. Tropatchov turns to Yeletsky and tells him that he knows that he has paid Kuzovkin off and that he was right to do so as, he is ’simply not one of us.’ Yeletsky does not reply but asks Pyotr to, ‘show this gentleman out.’

CURTAIN

Top: Richard Henders Above: Lucy Briggs-Owen and Alexander Vlahos with members of the cast Photos by Sheila Burnett


AnkulinaA servant in the house. She has been with the family for more than thirty years.

IvanovA friend of Kuzovkin and also a poor landowner. He is dubious that Olga and Yeletsky will allow Kuzovkin to remain in the house and thinks that he is naive to assume that they will.

KarpatchovKarpatchov has been taken in by Tropatchov as he was made bankrupt. Tropatchov keeps him more for his amusement and is quite unkind to him, often poking fun at him.

KuzovkinAn elderly gentleman who lives in the house. Olga’s father allowed him to stay in the house when he fell on hard times financially and he has remained there ever since. During a celebratory lunch, coaxed by the neighbour Tropatchov, he drinks too much which results in him revealing a huge secret which has substantial consequences.

MashaA young servant in the house. She is often criticised by Praskovya Ivanova who does not think she is good enough for the job.

Olga PetrovnaOlga is the heiress to a Russian country estate and is returning to her childhood home with her new husband. She has been living in St Petersburg with her aunt and this is the first time that she has been in the house for more than six years. She is keen for her husband to like the house and for them to live happily in it.

Praskovya IvanovaThe housekeeper, she was Olga’s nanny as a small child. Praskovya Ivanova is quite a stern lady and can be quite harsh to the junior members of staff.

PyotrA footman of the house. He is good at his job and very knowledgeable.

TrembinskyThe steward/butler of the house, he is also in charge of managing the estate.

TropatchovOlga and Yeletsky’s neighbour. He is quite mischevious and makes fun of Kuzovkin. At a celebratory lunch he causes havoc by getting Kuzovkin drunk which leads him to reveal a dark secret.

YeletskyThe new husband of Olga Petrovna, and a government official. He has just returned to the new home which he has inherited with his wife Olga. It is the first time that he has seen the house and Olga is keen for him to like it. He is very protective of Olga.

Fortune’s Fool Character Breakdown


Social status

A person’s social status was extremely important in Russia in the 1900s and is a major theme in Fortune’s Fool. Olga is returning to a huge estate which she has inherited from her father. Her new husband, Yeletsky is a government official and also from a ‘good’ family. They have several servants in the house, and also several ‘serfs’ on their land. When Kuzovkin reveals that he is Olga’s real father, Yeletsky is shocked and embarrassed; although he does not believe him he is still adamant that Kuzovkin should leave immediately as he is embarrassed by what he has said and what it would mean if it was true. He is also worried for his reputation as Kuzovkin makes his announcement not only in front of his pompous neighbour, Tropatchov but also the servants in the house. Olga is not as bothered by the importance of social status, when she arrives back at the house she is extremely pleased to see her staff and is also most welcoming of Kuzovkin and his friend. When she discovers that Kuzovkin is her father, although she is shocked, she does not think he should be banished, Kuzovkin however also thinks that it would be best for him to leave.

Wealth

Alongside class and social status the thing that sets the divide between the characters is their financial situations. Olga, Yeletsky and Tropatchov are very wealthy and between them own several thousand acres of land. Kuzovkin and Karpatchov, although once having reasonable wealth have lost all of their land and money and rely on others to support themselves. This puts them in a vulnerable position and any creditability they had previously is lost. Even the butler, Trembinsky is displeased that Kuzovkin is in the house, especially when the master and mistress return. In Karpatchov’s case, although Tropatchov has taken him in, he keeps him more for his amusement and is quite unkind to him.

Fortune’s Fool Themes

Left: Richard McCabePhoto by Sheila Burnett


Loss

Olga has returned to her family home after 13 years of being away. Her father died just before she was born and her mother a few years after. After this she moved to St Petersburg to live with her aunt. This is the first time that she has been back in the house since she left and she has returned with her new husband who will take on the running of the house for her. Olga doesn’t have any siblings, as her two twin brothers died before she was born. When she discovers that Kuzovkin is her father, although she is shocked she seems to be pleased to have found him, only for him to have to leave shortly after their meeting promising not to contact her again.

Lies and Deceit

Kuzovkin has kept the secret that he is Olga’s real father since she was born and it is only when he is really driven to that he lets slip. When Yeletsky hears what Kuzovkin has to say he is keen to have him removed at once and does not want to tell Olga the reason, telling her only that Kuzovkin was drunk, disrespectful and abusive to himself and Trembinsky and it would be inappropriate for him to stay. Although they are both lying to Olga, they are doing it to protect her and keep her safe, fearing the consequences if the truth were revealed.

Charles Aitkin as Tom Junior and Owen Rowe as Boss Finlay. Photo: Manuel Harlan

Below: Richard McCabe and Richard Henders in rehearsal. Left: Alexander VlahosPhotos by Sheila Burnett


Priscilla Roosevelt reveals the inner workings of the Russian country estate, the grandest of which functioned as miniature states complete with lord and subjects, ritual and protocol

Russia’s country estates played a crucial role in their national culture. From the age of Pushkin and Glinka to that of Tchaikovsky and Chekhov, the sights and sounds of this unique milieu inspired generations of Russian authors, composers and artists. Ivan Turgenev is a prime example. Raised on his family’s estate, Spasskoe, Turgenev used country life as a backdrop for almost all his great novels, plays and short stories. The Russian country estate had a long history. For centuries Russia’s tsars granted nobles large tracts of land populated by serfs. The income produced by the working of these lands by the resident serfs was intended to finance the nobility’s lifelong service to the state. In 1762, the year Catherine the Great seized power, nobles – the only members of society permitted to own estates – were freed from their compulsory service but they retained titles to both their lands and serfs. Many retired to domains they had once rarely visited, and the building of lavish estates became the hallmark of this golden age. Lesser nobles eyed the mansions and habits of grandees and copied their buildings, gardens and behaviour on whatever scale their means allowed. The late 18th and early 19th centuries were the apogee of the country estate, during which an archipelago of cultural oases spread across provincial Russia.

The nobility was the only privileged class in Russia. In each of the nation’s 50 provinces, the Marshal of the Nobility’s office zealously maintained the books of heraldry. During the annual assemblies of the nobility in district and provincial capitals, names were added or deleted from the ranks, cases of receivership or bankruptcy heard, wardships arranged, and advantageous matches considered. Status was determined partially by one’s rank in service but chiefly by the extent of one’s ‘baptised property,’ as Alexander Herzen termed serfdom. The disparity of wealth was significant. On the eve of the emancipation of serfs in 1861, the vast majority of nobles owned less than 100 serfs and many were barely solvent. Other seemingly substantial owners had raised cash by mortgaging their estates to the hilt. Genuine wealth began when landowners could claim 350 unmortgaged serfs as their own while the wealthiest five per cent boasted thousands, tens of thousands, or in rare cases even hundreds of thousands of serfs.

Life on the Russian Country Estate

Below: Richard McCabe and Alexander Vlahos with Janet Fullerlove, Bryonie Pritchard and Emily TuckerPhoto by Sheila Burnett


The landowner’s domain was a self-contained economic, cultural and social world, comparable to a medieval manor. On a substantial estate such as Turgenev’s Spasskoe, with roughly 5,000 serfs, a large domestic staff attended to the necessities and whims of the noble family. The staff, drawn as needed from the village serfs, included pretty housemaids and handsome footmen, seamstresses and laundresses, cooks and scullery maids, gardeners, grooms and huntsmen, all supervised by head servants such as the housekeeper, butler and overseer. The upkeep and prestige of the estate also required serf craftsmen trained in a host of specialities as well as resident artists. Some estates had theatre troupes, others orchestras or a chorus, though most entertainers had other duties as well. A master of ceremonies oversaw the entertainment. Within the manor walls, one might encounter the family nyanya or nanny (a respected serf woman who often raised several generations of the family), dwarfs and fools, tutors and governesses, and a number of hangers-on: poor relatives or neighbours who, sometimes inexplicably and for indefinite periods, took up residence on the estate. Some owners had private police forces but all personally dispensed justice in response to minor infractions committed by serfs, such as not bowing to the master, as well as for more serious offences including poaching.

By the late 1840s, when Fortune’s Fool was written, estate life had well-established patterns and protocols. Arrivals of the noble family were celebrated in style. Musicians or trumpeters hailed the family’s approach, house servants lined the entrance in greeting, and bread and salt – the Russian symbols of hospitality – were presented on a platter, followed by a celebratory service in the estate church. A similar ritual (minus the bread and salt) attended departures. Some estate owners, including Turgenev’s mother, parodied court protocol. Varvara Petrovna called the page who carried in the mail her Minister of the Post and dubbed her butler the Minister of the Court. Status differences were clearly marked. Dignitaries and important personages were welcomed through the front door whereas inferior nobles might enter at the side or rear of the house. Similar to the German and French languages, Russian has two forms of address. The formal pronoun was reserved for superiors or equals, the familiar used with inferiors, children and servants. Similar calculations determined one’s place at the table and even the food that was offered.

The family’s relations with house serfs were intimate and illegitimate children – whose fate depended entirely on their fathers – were common. Turgenev’s daughter (for whom he provided handsomely) was the result of a dalliance with his mother’s seamstress. His brother, to his mother’s horror, eventually married a chambermaid. Contact with village serfs was more limited, though noble and serf children often played together. Peasants celebrated festival days with song and dance in the estate courtyard, and important landmarks such as Christmas, Easter and the end of the harvest brought lord and peasant together. But by and large, for most Russians, village serfs were nameless and voiceless. The appearance of Turgenev’s A Sportsman’s Sketches in the early 1850s changed this attitude. His lyrical tales of a hunter’s observances as he ranges across the countryside in pursuit of game subtly revealed the rich spiritual and emotional lives of peasants, along with the unthinking, unbelievable cruelty of their owners. Often thought of as the Russian equivalent of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, the stories did much to make emancipation seem inevitable.

After 1861 the feudal aspects of the estate world disappeared but many wealthy landowners managed the transition to a market economy. Now anyone could buy an estate, and with it came a host of associations and traditions that most new owners maintained. Country estates continued to nurture the arts, for example. Between 1917 and 1921, however, the ravages of revolution and civil war utterly destroyed this world. In the ensuing decades, neglect and the harsh Russian winter took their toll on most of the remaining houses and gardens. Less than five per cent of the tens of thousands of estates in prerevolutionary Russia survive today.

Above: Dyfan Dwyfor Photo by Sheila Burnett


Welcome back! You were in Noises Off at the Novello Theatre, this is obviously a very different play from Noises Off. How are you finding it?You think its comedy, if it is its very, very dark, the first half has a lot of lightness to it which I think is important and a fair amount of comedy, the second half goes somewhere so different and having just spent this whole week on Act II I don’t really feel like it is a comedy at the moment, but there is a lot of comedy in it. Obviously the big enormous scene with the men at dinner where they get outrageously drunk, that is funny. But the fallout from that is absolutely not comic, in contrast to Noises Off it is hugely different. It’s a fine balance in Fortune’s Fool and I think that the comedy from my point of view, with my character, comes from feeling hugely in love and thrilled to be back home and I suppose that for my journey the dark humour falls apart.

What has the rehearsal process been like so far?We’re three quarters of the way through – it’s flying by. We obviously don’t have Turgenev with us but we are fortunate enough to have Mike Poulton who has done this adaptation, which is a gift, both Lucy the director and Mike the writer have been in the room with us. Mike was with us for the first week, so that’s great to start with we talked about the text, we read it, we picked it apart, we asked questions of Mike and then we just got up on our feet and gave it a go. Some scenes are easier to muddle through than others, now we have a skeleton of every scene, in fact we got to the end of it yesterday, so now in this final week and a half we’ll go back and interrogate the text further. Now we have the blocking in place we can go back and flesh it out and put more skin and muscle on the skeleton. I think that’s fairly typical of a rehearsal process.

So as actors do you have a lot of input into the direction of the piece?Yes, we like to think we do! At the end of the day its Lucy’s call but it is quite collaborative. Lucy in particular is brilliant with that, and it’s important to bring ideas and have thoughts and of course you do. You navigate it all together. And Mike whilst he has answers he doesn’t have a definitive version, it’s a collaborative experience.

Why were you interested in playing the part of Olga?First of all that period is fascinating and Russia is vast and fascinating, but I think it’s quite rare to be given a character that genuinely has no baggage at the start. There’s no sense of trying to keep a lid on something that will inevitably unfold. Life is really, really great. She’s hugely in love and is desperate to come back to this home and show it to her husband and watch him become the master of it. To have such joy that is then pulled away from you is a bit of a gift really because you almost just step on and watch the events unfold without having to do too much. I’m quite reactive, although having said that she then becomes quite a strong woman who in the second half, both Kuzovkin and my husband Yeletsky are both saying let’s just gloss over that, in order to protect me and I’m saying, no I want to know, I want to know, I have to know. So I think suddenly to assert myself in an environment which is quite patriartical is also something which is hugely interesting and I find fascinating.

In conversation with Lucy Briggs-Owen (Olga)

Above: Lucy Briggs-Owen Photo by Sheila Burnett


This play is set in the 19th Century, is it a challenge to make older plays relevant to today’s audiences? How do you do it?I think it is a challenge to some degree because we don’t live by the same roles any more, women have a lot more freedom and a lot more of a voice, not that I’m hugely put upon in this piece but I think that Mike has done something brilliant. The literal translation of Turgenev is really dry and really dense and he has made it full of heart and youth. I think he’s made it as contemporary as he can without taking it away from the period that it should exist in and of course it is a window into that time, which is great and interesting but it isn’t a museum piece. It is relevant by virtue of the fact that the themes are about love and family. We have come up against things that we’ve sort of said; is an audience going to get that now such as Olga not being able to have a relationship with her father because that is going to affect their social standing. That’s a lot to get your head round but Mike does it well. I think you feel a deeper sympathy with the characters, coming from our modern point of view where those things might not be as relevant.

What are the major themes of the play?We all talked about this and thought about what words resonated strongly in groups. They were inheritance, love, family, social status and loss. I think in the end the big one was love and family, it’s big stuff, it’s family.

When you take on a new role how do you prepare for it?You learn your lines! I mean you think you know something but then you stand up and they can fall out of your head because suddenly your plate spinning and doing lots of other things and you’ve got the other person there. Many actors would rather bumble through the first go with a script so that when they come to learn the lines they are learning them with a deeper sense of this scene. Some directors like you off book, others actually say please don’t be off book, they prefer actors to not learn it by wrote. I just know that I don’t have the best memory and that I’m going to be worrying about other things, so I would like to not be worrying about the words I’d like them just to be there and then we can mould them. I read around, specifically with this play I read a lot of Turgenev’s short stories because he’s mostly known for his novellas, so I thought that that would be insightful. There’s a particular type of woman called a tergeniouv woman, a sort of model that I thought it would be good to identify with and have some sense of. It’s really important to know about the world that they are existing in, the fact that there weren’t trains there was a huge revolution throughout Europe, I think these things are important because we might not think consciously about events that have happened to us but they are part of our psychology. I think that’s key. Physically, my character would have had training in music and dance and all of these society balls, where for goodness sake you are there to meet your future husband. They would have had to have danced and I think that would have had an influence on your deportment – why you are they way you are, it’s always good to have a go at those kind of dances. Your clothes are important, I don’t tend to wear jeans in rehearsals I would wear a skirt and some shoes that would stand in for what you’re going to wear on stage.

How did you start your career? What drew you to acting as a profession?I began acting because of a wonderful drama teacher that I had. I went to a very academic school and found myself to be hopeless at most other things on the timetable. Drama really saved me from feeling totally rubbish about myself and I came to love it and felt compelled to take it further. With the support of my wonderful teacher I applied to drama schools and ended up at Drama Centre where I had an extremely challenging but brilliant three years. From there I was lucky enough to get an agent and have been fortunate enough to have worked on stage with some great companies since.

Do you have any tips for people who would like to enter the world of theatre?I would recommend joining a local drama group or club, as I did. Going to see as much theatre as you can, read plays, watch films. Take GCSE and A level drama. Go to uni, travel, apply to drama schools straight away if you feel like it, but equally know that there’s no rush and drama schools like people with experience as much as they like fresh out of school types.


How did you start your career? What drew you to stage management?I sort of fell into it really. When I was at school I was very interested in theatre, but if you were interested in theatre then the only valid option was acting really, we didn’t know that there are other career options. I left school knowing that I wanted to work in this world but not knowing what to do. I got myself a job pouring gin and tonics in a West End theatre and then I had a family member that put on events and I helped out on his shows. I enjoyed it but I was looking at it as a summer job really and picking up extra money here and there. Not knowing anything about it I looked up online whether you could train in it. What I didn’t know at the time is that nearly every theatre in the country has technical theatre and stage management training, usually combined. I rang round and applied to every technical theatre course in the country from big drama schools to little village halls in Somerset. I ended up going with RADA and trained there for two years on the technical theatre and stage management course. Whilst I was there I was sent to the Menier Chocolate Factory on a professional placement and every single job up until now I can trace back to that work placement. So it sort on snowballed quite quickly after I left college.

What different types of productions have you worked on?I’ve done musicals and plays. I prefer plays to musicals, it’s a smaller set up usually not necessarily just the cast but also the production team. What I like about plays is that you feel more a part of the process, you get an opportunity for your voice to be heard more, you’re not just somebody in the corner running around, which you sort of are a lot more in a musical. On a play you’re part of a more tight knit group. Plays do run for a shorter period of time though so you’re looking for work more often but that’s part of the gamble, you have to do this for enjoyment.

What is it like working on Fortune’s Fool at The Old Vic?It’s great fun. It’s a really nice team everyone’s on it and it’s a really interesting process – Lucy, the director, works in a really interesting way, very exploratory. A great part of this job is that you get to watch some incredible people; actors, directors, designers and some really interesting processes. Everyone is different. In this play Lucy will sit down with the cast and they will talk about the scene, they will run the lines, they will talk about what everyone’s relationships are within that scene and then they will get up and quite often will improvise bits within that scene. They will go off text for a period of time to develop everyone’s relationships between the characters, they will then bring it back to the script and apply what they have learned during that exploratory time.

What does your day look like on a day to day basis?It completely varies! Usually we get in about an hour before the cast do and make sure the room is set up for what they are going to be rehearsing that day, specifically the morning. For example making sure all the props are in the right place and then see where the day takes you. We will often go out and buy props, there is quite a lot of food in this production so we have spent a lot of time working out what the actors are going to eat. You probably have some meetings with prop supervisors and costume supervisors, and then at the end of the day the stage management send out rehearsal notes. We type up everything that has happened during the day that affects other technical apartments. For example, if there is a particular lighting effect that Lucy wants in that moment then we pass that on and it all goes through rehearsal notes. Or if a new prop has been added we collate. Then we go home!

How big is the stage team that you work with?In stage management there are three; there is a company stage manager (CSM), a deputy stage manager (DSM) and an assistant stage manager (ASM). We’re the core people in rehearsals, sending out all of that information to the other departments and making sure they are talking to one another. When it comes to running of the show we add some people to that. One of the in-house stage team will be in every show and they will be up on the flight floor. We will have one crew member to help with scene changes then we have one of the in house wardrobe department also a dresser and somebody on wigs – so it grows once we move into the theatre.

In conversation with Oliver Bagwell Purefoy (Assistant Stage Manager)


What is your role when the show is on?We are here for every show; eight times a week. We come in an hour or two before the show every day to set up, to do our pre-set and to make sure the props are in the right place and the set is ready for the top of the show. Then during the show it depends. We learn that when we get into tech and find out what is necessary I’m going to be doing scene changes on stage so I’ll have to be in costume for this one! Usually we wear black clothes and a headset and hide in a black corner somewhere backstage but this time I have to look like an 1840s Russian serf. What we do during the show really comes up during the tech, we have a basic idea now – we know that in a particular scene change X,Y & Z needs to move on stage or this needs to move off stage, or these doors need to be opened. We know that’s got to happen so we can plan for it but inevitably during the tech and previews we will work out that actually between all of those points there’s going to be a lot of things that need to happen, there’s a lot of prop tracking!

What are the best bits of the job?I find it fascinating to walk into rehearsals, a room full of people that barely know each other on day one, who just have a hunk of text and nothing else really apart from a design concept for the set and costumes. Watching that develop over the weeks into something that a thousand people are going to watch every night. That’s an amazing thing to be a part of.

What has been your most challenging moment?On this show we’ve got quite a lot of food and we need to make a fish pie that is popular in 1840s Russia which is quite a specific item to make. We’ve come up with lots of different plans, made lots of different prototypes and thought we were getting somewhere. Then one of the cast members, who shall remain nameless, with about a week to go informed us that he couldn’t eat wheat or dairy, which sort of put us back to before square one I think...so that was interesting! That was probably the most challenging moment – trying to keep a straight face when receiving that bit of information.

What skills does a good ASM need?I think this goes for all stage management, not just ASMs, but they need to be able to think ahead of the game all the time, you need to be able to talk to a whole host of different people you can certainly never get star struck as everyone’s on a level playing field and you are just part of a team that is putting a show on. You’ve got to be quite inventive and you can’t be lazy. There is a lot of hard work that goes into it, you are pulling a lot of long hours. For example in tech week we will probably be here from 8.30 in the morning to 11.30 at night. You have to have a very good work ethic and be quite articulate because the stage management team really is a focal point for all the different departments, it’s where all the information is passed through so you can’t let anything slip through the net.

What advice would you give anyone wanting to get involved with stage management?I think that vocational training is severely underrated. University is great for life experience, for meeting new people but I don’t think there are enough people who go through vocational training. Because it’s not an easy career, everyone is self-employed and you’re always looking one step ahead so I think vocational training is incredibly important because it’s not just about sitting there and learning by wrote, and writing essays about the theory of theatre. As a stage manager you don’t necessarily need to know the skills that a director might have you build that up through experience and you build your experience by meeting and working with different people and different shows. Every show is different, I’ve just come from a Shakespeare play and it was done in such a hugely different way to this and it sounds like a cliché but you don’t stop learning. So look at vocational training, look at going to drama school to study technical theatre-you don’t have to do stage management. The course I did was very broad so at the beginning you do a bit of everything. I learned how to sew up broken costumes, to paint scenic effects to set building, lighting and prop making. Or you can train specifically in what you are interested in – just look into it.


I was fortunate enough to discover Turgenev early. Having read my way through Chekhov’s short stories, I found Turgenev’s novels and sketches – Fathers and Sons, On the Eve, First Love, Home of the Gentry, Torrents of Spring and Sketches from a Hunter’s Album, as my translation called it. Hunter’s Album (or A Sportsman’s Sketches) in particular seemed to me to be near perfect writing. Living characters climb out of the pages and walk about in fields or on the edge of woodland, sleep in the open air, and fix themselves in our imaginations with little nails of closely observed detail – as real for us as they must have been for Turgenev’s first readers.

It’s like watching snatches of scenes played out in forests, meadows or on riverbanks. I also read A Month in the Country. In fact I had only a vague idea that Turgenev had written other plays. Until a friend, bored in Malvern by the first half of a production of Hadrian the Seventh, came out in the interval and, to kill time, wandered into a second-hand bookshop, emerging with a copy of Three Plays by Turgenev. It was an old, unperformable, translation of Fortune’s Fool but it struck me as a real discovery – something worth saving – worth restoring, and bringing back to life. I thought it better than any of the contemporary work I was seeing at the time. And it knocked Hadrian into a cocked hat. So I commissioned a literal translation, worked on it with Russian friends, and we ended up on Broadway with a Tony nomination for Best New Play – 150 years after it was written. I owe a great deal to both Turgenev and the friend who got bored in Malvern.

Adapting plays is very easy really. You start with the audience. You have to learn how to please a theatre full of anything from 300 to 1,500 people. It takes years of patient, careful study. Don’t watch the play, watch the audience is the rule. There are no short cuts. Then you have to choose your playwright very carefully. Take Schiller, for example: you have to immerse yourself in everything Schiller. You have to know his times, his background and his politics. You have to learn to think like him so that if, one afternoon, he wanders off and leaves you to it – Schiller often wanders off – you’ll be able to hold the fort for him. And you have to like him. It’s no good trying to work with a playwright you don’t love and admire – one you don’t trust, or whose stagecraft is a bit dodgy – who can’t tell a middle from a beginning or an end – or one who is going to preach at your audience from the stage. Then there’s the language. You have to know what every line means and every shade of meaning existing under the line. Gradually you begin to develop an instinct for what rings true in an author. A good ear can’t be taught but a false note has to be recognised.

In conversation with Mike Poulton (Writer)

Aboe from left: Alexander Vlahos, Patrick Cremin and Lucy Briggs- Owen in rehearsal Photo: Sheila Burnett


The examples I always trot out are an American translation of The Cherry Orchard where Lopakhin says: ‘So we cut down the cherry orchard. You got a problem with that?’ And a recent medieval television costume drama where an Earl’s daughter says to her sister: ‘Don’t tell me you’re planning to boycott the royal wedding?’ Obviously it’s wrong – in fact it’s hideous – but it’s often difficult to say why it’s wrong. Having understood and absorbed the language of the original, you have to set it aside and translate its spirit. Literal translations are unplayable. I have recently worked on an epic; two-thirds of it had to be translated into Japanese so I know this to be true.

Finally, the actual writing process, once everything has been absorbed, has to take place in complete isolation. I allow a minimum of six months from the point where I’m ready to start writing – though it’s often longer. Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies will have taken me three years by the time we open at the Royal Shakespeare Company in December. Working with Hilary – the only time I have collaborated with a living author – has been a joyful and different experience because she understands and loves theatre. I have never been so well championed and supported, whereas Euripides gave me no help at all. I can phone Hilary at odd hours of the day and night and ask her to pull me out of any holes I dig myself into. I can’t do that with Schiller or Chekhov.

People ask me why Fortune’s Fool is only now coming to London’s West End, after 163 years. It has been proposed many times. I suppose the answer is that I’d always resisted a London production because I wasn’t ready. Translations are like old houses – constantly under repair. In this case I’ve rebuilt the play from scratch, cutting and changing things I didn’t like. It’s a very funny play that in a very Russian way turns tragic. Make ‘em laugh, make ‘em cry. But it has to be real.

Turgenev’s characters address us as if they were our contemporaries and friends. Only the vocabulary has nothing jarringly modern about it. And then of course Fortune’s Fool is a very difficult play to cast – very demanding of the two central roles in particular. And the two juvenile leads require a sort of brilliance often beyond young actors’ years. Which brings us to the director. I’ve been fortunate in my directors – worked with the best – but in my experience you have to get the right man or woman for the job. I mean, you wouldn’t have asked Harold Pinter to direct Funny Girl, would you? And Ray Cooney wouldn’t be your first choice for Coriolanus. The reason why Fortune’s Fool is happening now is that I believe I’ve found the perfect director, designer and cast. And it’s in The Old Vic – the perfect theatre for the play. It’s as simple as that. Some auspicious star must have brought everything together.

Fortune’s Fool is not unique. There are other great plays just across the tottering wooden bridge, awaiting discovery – worth saving, worth restoring. Masterpieces of European theatre are rarely seen in London, and the outer fringes of the English language repertoire are badly neglected. Few producers are prepared to risk the costs involved in mounting a production of an untried, unknown play. So we have films turned into musicals, and endless revivals of old favourites. Yet when one is brave enough to take risks, the results are often surprising – and rewarding.

This is an edited interview from the Fortune’s Fool programme.


Bibliography

BooksTurgenev, trans. Charles and Natasha Hepburn, A Sportsman’s Notebook (1992)Turgenev, trans. Avril Pyman, Fathers and Children (1991)VS Pritchett, The Gentle Barbican: The Life and Work of Turgenev (2012)

ArticlesDominic Cavendish, Sarah Crompton, Paul Gent and Ben Lawrence, ‘The top ten Beatrice and Benedicks’,The Guardian (19 September 2013)Melissa Hogenboom, ‘How the GI influx shaped Britain’s view of Americans’, BBC News Magazine (3 November 2012)

WebsitesChris Power, ‘A brief survey of the short story part 50: Ivan Turgenev’ The Guardian (Friday 21 June 2013)http://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2013/jun/21/ivan-turgenev-brief-survey-short-story

http://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2013/jun/21/ivan-turgenev-brief-survey-short-story

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