Characters in the Play

• Nikolay Alexeyevitch Ivanov (permanent member of the Rural Board)

• Anna Petrovna (his wife, before her baptism and marriage called Sarra Abramson)

• Count Matvey Semyonitch Shabelsky (his maternal uncle)

• Pavel Kirillitch Lebedyev (Chairman of the District Zemstvo)

• Zinaida Savishna (his wife)

• Sasha (their daughter, aged twenty)

• Yevgeny Konstantinovitch Lvov (a young Zemstvo Doctor)

• Marfa Yegorovna Babakin (the young widow of a landowner, daughter of a rich merchant)

• Dmitri Nikititch Kossih (Excise officer)

• Mihail Mihailovitch Borkin (a distant relative of Ivanov and Steward of his estate)

• Avdotya Nazarovna (an old woman of no definite occupation)

• Yegorushka (a dependant of the Lebedyevs)

• First guest

• Second guest

• Third guest

• Fourth guest

• Pyotr (Ivanov’s manservant)

• Gavril (Lebedyev’s manservant)

• Visitors (of both sexes)

• Menservants

The action takes place in one of the provinces of Central Russia.