The literary basis for this production by Nikita Kobelev, Artistic Director of the Alexandrinsky Theatre, is Yuri Tynyanov’s historical novel “The Death of Vizier-Mukhtar”, dedicated to Alexander Sergeyevich Griboyedov.

In March 1828, the 33-year-old Griboyedov returned to Russia from Persia, visiting Moscow and St Petersburg, where he found himself at the centre of high society, public and cultural life. In a few months’ time, he was due to return to Persia to head the Russian diplomatic mission there. Stopping off in Tiflis on his way, he meets his former pupil once more, the young Georgian princess Nina Chavchavadze, who became his last love and his wife.

In Tynyanov’s novel, written a century later in 1928, the final year of the life of one of the most talented men of his time is described step by step.

Alexander Sergeyevich Griboyedov (1795–1829) is, of course, known to a wide audience of theatregoers and readers as the author of the “immortal comedy” “Woe from Wit” (1824). But he was not only fascinated by drama and the theatre. He was also an excellent musician; several of his piano pieces have survived, the best known of which are two waltzes. He was a brilliant diplomat whose work centred on the Caucasus and the East. It was through his mediation that the Treaty of Turkmenchay was concluded, and he was also the author of a plan for the reform of the Caucasus.

But amidst all his varied pursuits, as he himself says in the novel: “I still cannot find myself”. In the character of Chatsky, Griboyedov was the first in Russian literature to create a character who is preoccupied with the search for himself and his place in space and time. Four years after creating the character, the author himself unwittingly found himself in a situation somewhat similar to that of the hero of his play.

Nikita Kobelev’s play, following the novel, tells not only the story of the main protagonist, but also of those who surrounded Griboyedov in the 1820s. Among the array of characters are the heroes and figures who shaped history and culture, creating the image of the era in all its diverse facets and expressions. Pushkin, Krylov, Chaadaev, Bulgarin, Emperor Nicholas I, Count Nesselrode, the first actor to play the role of Chatsky – the great Russian tragic actor Vasily Karatygin – and many others.

In 1831, it was the Russian Drama Company of the Imperial Theatre Directorate – whose legacy is carried on by the Alexandrinsky Theatre’s present-day company – that staged the comedy “Woe from Wit” in its entirety for the very first time. The Alexandrinsky Theatre’s historic stage was built a year later, in 1832. And within these walls, Griboyedov’s legacy has been revisited time and again.

But this is the first time the Alexandrinsky Theatre has examined his personal history and life so closely, against the backdrop of the intellectual currents of Russian society. 

Yuri Nikolaevich Tynyanov (1894–1943) was an outstanding St Petersburg literary scholar and a member of “The Society for the Study of Poetic Language”, where, together with V.B. Shklovsky and B.Y. Eichenbaum, he worked on developing the “formal method” in literary studies. In the mid-1920s, he began writing historical novels and novellas, the best known of which are “Kukhlya”, “Second Lieutenant Kizhe”, “The Wax Figure” and the unfinished novel “Pushkin”. Drawing on documents and events from past centuries, Tynyanov created innovative modernist prose featuring a wealth of unexpected metaphors and the use of montage techniques more typical of cinema.

The play “The Last Year” – a rare adaptation of Y.N. Tynyanov’s prose on the Russian stage.

Furthermore, the production features excerpts from A.S. Griboyedov’s play “Woe from Wit” and his unfinished play “Georgian Night”, as well as poems by A.S. Pushkin and E.A. Baratynsky.

The role of Alexander Griboyedov is being rehearsed by actor Viktor Shuralyov.

The play’s rehearsals involve the participation of: People's Artist of Russia Igor Volkov; Russian Honored Artists: Alexander Lushin, Elena Nemzer, Alexander Chevychelov; Artists: Ivan Trus, Ivan Efremov, Andrey Matyukov, Igor Mosyuk, Olesya Sokolova, Maria Lopatina, Sergey Elikov, Dmitry Buteev, Dmitry Belov, Valery Stepanov, Maria Medvedeva, Ivan Zhykov, Timur Akshentsev, Nikita Voityuk, Lyubov Yakovleva, Anna Pozhidaeva, Matvey Ptashny, Anna Velichko, Boris Lukonin.

Premiere — 9 October 2026