The premiere of the play “Woe to Mind” at Meyerhold Theatre

In his production, Vsevolod Meyerhold introduced inserts from its original versions into the text of Alexander Griboyedov's play. Also from there, the name of the play was taken. The part of Chatsky was played by the 25-year-old Erast Garin; the director himself wrote that for this part he needed a “fervent boy, not a tribune”. By the way, Igor Ilyinsky who played Famusov was only one year older than Garin. The performance was an excellent one, full of interesting director's findings. However, the premiere, was unsuccessful, unfortunately. The scenery failed: they were delivered with great delay (only by the beginning of general rehearsals) and incomplete, which greatly disturbed both actors and spectators (for example, due to the creak of stage-floors it was difficult to hear the actors).