Property values: bad behavior in Russia's ruling class.(three plays)

Publication: The New Yorker

Publication Date: 15-APR-02

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COPYRIGHT 2002 All rights reserved. Reproduced by permission of The Condé Nast Publications Inc.

Turgenev's little-known 1848 play "Fortune's Fool," now at the Music Box in an adaptation by Mike Poulton, has also been little known under two other titles, "One of the Family" and "A Poor Gentleman." But the current title resonates the most, because the play has to do with the way that both meanings of the word "fortune" -- fate and finances -- hinge and impinge on each other. Set at a Russian country estate on the day that its young mistress, Olga Petrovna (Enid Graham), along with her new husband, is coming back for the first time in nearly nine years to take possession of her childhood home, the play begins with the usual rushing around of bossy servants. Into the hubbub walks Kuzovkin (Alan Bates). He is a man with a vaguely proprietary air, but it's unclear whether he's a gentleman or a servant; his calm manner suggests that he doesn't have a job to do, and yet he's shabbily dressed, in a black frock coat that has seen better days. As he waits for Olga Petrovna, he finishes a game of chess with his neighbor, Ivanov (George Morfogen, on parole from "Oz"), and in his conversation we hear traces of both the...

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