Reception (play)
{{Infobox play
| name = Reception
| image =
| caption =
| writer = Maxim Gorky
| characters =
| setting = A railway station five verstas away from the small town of Verkhneye Myamlino
| premiere =
| place =
| orig_lang = Russian
| subject =
| genre = Comedy
}}
Reception ({{langx|ru|Встреча|translit=Vstrecha}}) is a one-act comedy by Maxim Gorky.[http://home.mts-nn.ru/~gorky/TEXTS/PIESES/PRIM/kndr_pr.htm Commentaries to Дети]. Collected Works by A.M. Gorky, vol. 12 // На базе Собрания сочинений в 30-ти томах. ГИХЛ, 1949-1956. ТОМ 6 It was first published in 1910, in Sovremenny Mir under its original title. Simultaneously it came out as a separate edition under the title Children ({{langx|ru|Дети|translit=Deti}}), via the Berlin-based Ladyzhnikov Publishers.
Gorky mentioned it in his 20 November 1910 letter to Mykhailo Kotsiubynsky: "I send you my Reception, perhaps it will make you smile," he wrote from Capri.[http://home.mts-nn.ru/~gorky/TEXTS/LETTERS/499.htm Letter to M.M. Kotsyubinsky], 20 November 1910.
Characters
- Prince Svir-Mokshanski, of uncertain age, balding and frailAs described by Gorky
- Bubenhof, solid and behaves like a conqueror
- Mokey Zobnin, of around fifty, shifty, perky and prone to fantasizing
- Ivan Kichkin, old, fat and unhealthy
- Pyotr Tipunov, soft-spoken and peace-loving
- Kostya Zryakhov, a plump young man, speaks condescendingly and with unexpectedly long vowels
- Yevstigneyka, a disheveled character with eyes of a lunatic
- Tatyana Zobnina, a widow, stout and moving lazily
- Marya Viktorovna, a perky and lively girl
- Drunken passenger, Old woman with a petition, the Station master, Bykov the janitor, the Gendarme, the Telegraph man
Synopsis
Two rival families of the local merchants grudgingly unite to buy a huge plot of land from a local aristocrat, with a view to build a timber factory. The reception at the railway station astounds the Prince (who arrives with a German companion). He is delighted with the way how the people here admire him and are such pure and nice creatures, 'like children'. Some other locals (including a perpetuum mobile inventor) join the party with their pleas and complaints. The celebration turns sour when it transpires that the land has just been sold, to the German man.
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- [http://home.mts-nn.ru/~gorky/TEXTS/PIESES/chld.txt Дети]. The original Russian text
{{Maxim Gorky}}
{{1910s-play-stub}}