The metaphor of play-acting in the plot of the play by Edvard Radzinsky “An Old Actress in the Role of Dostoevsky’s Wife”

The image of Anna Grigorievna Dostoevskaya, one of the best wives in Russian literature, has been repeatedly embodied in works of art. It helped represent better the personality of the Russian writer and appeared before readers and spectators as an ideal of the female devotion and selfless service to the husband. One of these works is the play by Edvard Radzinsky “An Old Actress in the Role of Dostoevsky’s Wife”, the interpretation of which is given in this article. Radzinsky with the help of the motif of the game and the reception of “the play in the play” masterfully connects the fate of two women of different epochs, Anna Dostoevskaya and an old actress performing her role. The last one thanks to her fervent acting rebuild the reality of the past, the life that disappeared, but recorded in the memoirs of Dostoevsky’s wife. For the actress herself, the role of Anna Grigorievna, performed without the presence of spectators and without using a recording film is a desperate attempt to escape from her loneliness, to overcome the tragedy of aging and uselessness. Comprehending the nature of Anna Grigoryevna’s character and her great love for Dostoevsky, the actress returns to life through creativity, the play-acting for her becomes life, wins the decline of life and death, saves from emptiness and aimlessness of the surrounding reality. The metaphor of play-acting is put into practice, the boundaries between art and reality disappear. The play “An Old Actress in the Role of Dostoevsky’s Wife” with its deep content has an extraordinary emotional power of influence on the reader and viewer.