The history of the creation of the play "At the Bottom" by M. Gorky

Every playwright wants to create a play that would appeal not only to contemporaries, but also to future generations. To remain relevant for many decades can only be a work that carries a certain meaning, teaches something, reveals the impartial aspects of society, solves social problems. It is to such works that the play "At the bottom" belongs.

History of writing drama

The work of Maxim Gorky "At the bottom" was published in 1902. It was written specifically for the troupe of the Moscow Art Public Theater. This play has a very difficult destiny: it has survived bans and censorship, for so many years, disputes about its ideological content, artistic originality have not stopped. The drama was praised and criticized, but nobody treated it indifferently. The creation of the play "At the bottom" was laborious, the writer began work on it in 1900, and finished only two years later.

Gorky drew attention to dramatic art in the early twentieth century. It was then that he shared with Stanislavsky his idea to create a Bosnian play, in which there would be about two dozen characters. The author himself did not know what would come of it, he did not count on a loud success, characterized his work as failed, with a weak plot, outdated.

The main characters of the drama

The history of the creation of the play "At the bottom" is quite prosaic. Maxim Gorky wanted to tell her about his observations of the world of the lower classes. To the "former people" the writer referred not only the inhabitants of doss-houses, proletarians and wanderers, but also representatives of the intelligentsia, disillusioned in life, who had failed. There were also real prototypes of the protagonists.

Thus, the story of the creation of the play "At the bottom" tells that the author created the image of Bubnov, combining the characters of a familiar tramp and intellectual teacher. Actor Gorky copied from the artist Kolosovsky-Sokolovsky, and from the stories of Claudia Gross was borrowed the image of Nastya.

Fighting censorship

A lot of time had to be spent on getting permission to stage the play. The author defended every replica of the characters, every line of his creation. In the end, permission was granted, but only for the Art Theater. The story of the creation of the play "At the bottom" was not easy, Gorky himself did not believe in his success, and the authorities allowed the production, hoping for a loud failure. But it turned out exactly the opposite: the play was a resounding success, she was given a lot of publications in the newspapers, the author was repeatedly summoned to the stage, applauding him standing up.

The history of the creation of the play "At the bottom" is notable for the fact that Gorky did not immediately determine its name. The drama has already been written, and how to name it, its author has not decided. Among the known variants were the following: "Without the sun", "In the lodging house", "At the bottom of life", "Nochlezhka", "Bottom". Only in the 90-ies of the twentieth century in one of the Moscow theaters was staged a play called "At the bottom." Whatever it was, but the drama was well received by the viewer not only in Russia, but also abroad. In 1903 the premiere of the play took place in Berlin. The drama was played 300 times in a row, and this shows an unprecedented success.