Live Not as You Would Like To
| Live Not as You Would Like To | |
|---|---|
| Written by | Aleksander Ostrovsky |
| Date premiered | 3 December 1854 |
| Place premiered | Maly Theatre in Moscow |
| Original language | Russian |
| Subject | Maslenitsa |
| Genre | Family drama |
| Setting | 18th century Moscow |
Live Not as You Would Like To (Russian: Не так живи, как хочется, Romanized as: Ne tak zhivi kak khochetsya) is a play by Alexander Ostrovsky. It premiered on 3 December 1854 at the Moscow's Maly Theatre and was published for the first time in the No. 17, September 1855 issue of Moskvityanin magazine.
Initially Ostrovsky had in mind a five-act drama, set in the 17th century, in one of the Privolzhye's cities. An old Russian proverb, God's Thing Is Strong, the Foe's One Just Sticky (Bozhye krepko, a vrazhye lepko), gave the play its working title. The rough draft of it appeared in August 1854. The play's second version, a three-act drama now called Live Not As You Would Like To was set in the 18th century Moscow, in the days of the traditional Russian Maslenitsa pancake carnival.
In November 1854 the play was completed and on December 3 premiered at the Maly Theatre. It was published in September 1855 (with 600 copies of a separate book edition pressed simultaneously), proving to be Ostrovsky's final publication for Moskvityanin. This magazine's text had to undergo some changes, though. The new, edited version appeared in the 1859 Works by A.N.Ostrovsky in two volumes published by Count Grigory Kushelyov-Bezborodko.
Live Not As You Would Like To premiered at the Maly Theatre on 3 December 1854, as a benefit for Kornely Poltavtsev who played Pyotr. It featured Prov Sadovsky as Agafon, Lyubov Nikulina-Kositskaya as Grusha and Sergey Vasilyev as Vasya. Its Alexandrinsky Theatre premier took place on 12 January 1885, featuring Pyotr Stepanov (Pyotr), Alexandra Chitau (Dasha), Yulia Linskaya (Afimya) and Alexander Martynov as Yeremka, among others.
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