Extract: THE POWER OF DARKNESS ACT I The Act takes place in autumn in a large village. The Scene represents Peter's roomy hut. Peter is sitting on a wooden bench, mending a horse-collar. Anisya and Akoulina are spinning, and singing a part-song. PETER looking out of the window] The horses have got loose again. If we don't look out they'll be killing the colt. Nikita Hey, Nikita Is the fellow deaf? Listens. To the women] Shut up, one can't hear anything. NIKITA from outside] What? PETER. Drive the horses in. NIKITA. We'll drive 'em in. All in good time. PETER shaking his head] Ah, these...

Extract: Scene 1 A dirty room in a low-class restaurant. A table, at which people sit drinking tea and vodka. In the foreground a small table, at which sits Fedya, tattered, and much come down in the world. With him is Petushkov, a gentle, mild man with long hair, of clerical appearance. Both are slightly drunk. PETUSHKOV. I understand, I understand. That is true love Yes? Go on. FEDYA. Well, you know, if a woman of our class showed such feeling and sacrificed everything for the man she loved.... But she was a gipsy, brought up to money-hunting, and yet she had this self-sacrificing love ...

Extract: ACT I Scene 1 The scene represents the verandah of a fine country-house, in front of which a croquet-lawn and tennis-court are shown, also a flower-bed. The children are playing croquet with their governess. Mary Ivanovna Saryntsova, a handsome elegant woman of forty; her sister, Alexandra Ivanovna Kohovtseva, a stupid, determined woman of forty-five; and her husband, Peter Semyonovich Kohovtsef, a fat flabby man, dressed in a summer suit, with a pince-nez, are sitting on the verandah at a table with a samovar and coffee-pot. Mary Ivanovna Saryntsova, Alexandra Ivanovna Kohovtseva,...