| Production | Roman Kozak |
| Director | Alla Pokrovskaya |
| Designer | Alexander Orlov |
| Sound | Sergei Lebedev |
| Light Design | Anatoli Kuznetsov |
| Assistant director | Nadezhda Klintsova |
| Cast | Roman Kozak, Konstantin Raikin |
... by contrast to its literary source the production (which is. by the way. very stylish, constrained, and free from the scenic platitudes of our times) comprises a certain theatrical discovery. This discovery is the acting of Konstantin Raikin. ... Raikin played here not the villain, but evil as such, evil with empty eye sockets. Concentrated, but impersonal. Essential, but not existential, deprived of individuality. Not a malicious soul, but the absence of a soul. A frightening nothing ... Kozak, we have to say, technically plays thede- individualized character a la Magritte, in a black suit and bowler hat. He is not a person, but a So-and-so. Somebody. Everybody. The absolute evil entering into a dialogue with so-and-so: this is interesting, at least from the theatrical point of view. But if it were with a person it would be even more interesting.
Izvestiya