Griboyedov, Alexander Sergeivich

Griboyedov, Alexander Sergeivich (1795–1829), Russian diplomat and dramatist, assasinated in Tehran while acting as Russian Minister to Persia. His comedies were translated from the French or written in collaboration with his friends, the exception being his classic play Gore ot Uma, whose title has been variously rendered as Woe from Wit, Wit Works Woe, Too Clever by Half, The Misfortunes of Reason, The Trouble with Reason, and The Disadvantages of Being Clever. It deals with the struggles of a young man, arriving in Moscow full of liberal and progressive ideas, against the stupidity and trickery of a corrupt society. Classic in form yet realistic and satiric in content, this first dramatic protest against tsarist society is one of the great plays of the Russian theatre. Griboyedov worked on it for many years, and although it was banned from the stage during his lifetime it circulated freely in manuscript and was printed in a cut version four years after his death. It was first performed at the Bolshoi Theatre in St Petersburg in 1831, published in full in 1861, and revived by the Moscow Art Theatre in 1906 with Kachalov and Moskvin as Chatsky and Famusov, which they played again in a production in 1938. The part of Chatsky is to young Russian actors what Hamlet is to English, and Famusov, the heroine's conservative father, has long been a favourite role with older actors.