Light Without Heat
| Light Without Heat | |
|---|---|
Light Without Heat at Alexandrinsky Theatre, 1880. Nikolai Sazonov as Rabachev and Maria Savina as Olya. K. Brouge's illustration. | |
| Written by | Alexander Ostrovsky and Nikolai Solovyov |
| Date premiered | 6 November 1880 |
| Place premiered | Maly Theatre in Moscow |
| Original language | Russian |
| Genre | Realistic drama |
Light Without Heat (Russian: Светит, да не греет, romanized: Svetit, da ne greyet) is a five-act play by Alexander Ostrovsky, based upon the play The Broken Happiness by his friend, a fellow dramatist Nikolai Solovyov, which Ostrovsky re-worked. It premiered at the Moscow Maly Theatre on 6 November 1880 (as a benefit for Mikhail Sadovsky who played Rabachev) and first appeared in print in 1881, in Ogonyok magazines (issues 6-10), as the Ostrovsky and Solovyov's joint work.
Modern Russian critics see it as a precursor to Anton Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard, both plays focusing on the Russian gentry at different stages of its decline or, in case of Chekhov's play, collapse.