Dancing to the Devil’s Tune: Шарманка cатаны (Satan’s Hurdy-Gurdy) by Teffi

Teffi’s only full-length play written in Russia, Шарманка сатаны (Satan’s Hurdy-Gurdy, 1915), with its mixture of the comic and serious and an overlayer of symbolism, conforms to the broadened Chekhovian concept of comedy, but, with its strict demarcation of the satirical and dramatic, also harkens back to 18th century classical comedies. The article traces both the play’s comedic and serious lines and shows its pivotal position between Teffi’s earlier and her émigré writing. The comic side depicts stultifying provincial life through a mixture of light humor, dark satire, and symbolism, while the serious side offers two means of escape. In the main plot escape is thwarted when the transcendent “fiery” world, promised the heroine by her seducer, turns out to be the illusory Land of Never, but in the secondary plot a wealthy merchant’s son does succeed, abandoning provincial society for a tramp’s life. In Teffi’s émigré works pursuit of both the fiery and earthly means of escape recurs, but inevitably fails. The enduring influence of Шарманка сатаны is evident in her last play, Ничего подобного (Nothing of the Kind).