The Power of Darkness

A cold and unsparing look at Russian peasant life, this drama centers on a character whose crimes progress from adultery to murder. Tolstoy's moving portrait of a class enslaved by poverty and ignorance was written in 1886 but its performance was suppressed by Russian authorities until 1902. A 1904 Yiddish version marked the first successful production of a play by Tolstoy in the United States.