| Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich | |
| Place: | Suvorin's theatre, Saint Petersburg |
| Orig Lang: | Russian |
| Genre: | Historical drama |
Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich (Russian: Царь Фёдор Иоаннович, old orthography: Царь Ѳедоръ Іоанновичъ) is a 1868 historical drama by Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy.[1] It is the second part of a trilogy that begins with The Death of Ivan the Terrible and concludes with Tsar Boris.[2] All three plays were banned by the censor.[3] Tsar Fyodor is written in blank verse and was influenced by the work of William Shakespeare, Casimir Delavigne, and Edward Bulwer-Lytton.[4] It dramatises the story of Feodor I of Russia, whom the play portrays as a good man who is a weak, ineffectual ruler.[5] The trilogy formed the core of Tolstoy's reputation as a writer in the Russia of his day and as a dramatist to this day.[1] It has been considered Tolstoy's masterpiece.[5]
Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich was first performed in an amateur production in Saint Petersburg in 1890.[6] It received its first professional production at Suvorin's theatre in Saint Petersburg on 12 October 1898, directed by P. P. Gnedich.[7] Two days later on 14 October, the play was performed as the inaugural production of the world-famous Moscow Art Theatre, directed by Constantin Stanislavski, with Ivan Moskvin in the lead role and Vsevolod Meyerhold as Prince Vasiliy Shuisky.[8] Since then the play has been revived frequently.[3] Incidental music was written for the play by Alexander Ilyinsky.