Vera Komissarzhevskaya, one of the lead actresses of this play’s disastrous 1896 St. Petersburg premiere, was so intimidated by hecklers that she lost her voice before even taking the stage. For 10 points each:
[10e] An 1898 Moscow Art Theater production of what play cast Vsevolod Meyerhold (“F’SAY-vuh-lut MYE-er-holt”) as Konstantin Treplev?
ANSWER: The Seagull [or Chayka]
[10h] One of the few instances in which the MAT’s production of The Seagull sticks to Chekhov’s original directions is a scene in which a character silently performs this action for two whole minutes after remarking, “It would be a pity if she were seen in the garden.”
ANSWER: tearing up manuscripts [accept answers indicating that Konstantin Treplev’s papers are being torn up or equivalents]
[10m] Earlier, a costly MAT production of this author’s play Hannele was aborted due to resistance from the Orthodox Church. The MAT also produced a play by this non-Russian author in which the Nickelmann repeats “Brekekekex.”
ANSWER: Gerhart Hauptmann [or Gerhart Johann Robert Hauptmann] (The unnamed play is The Sunken Bell.)
<Ani Perumalla, European Literature>