Act 1 Summary

The opening set is a cave-like stone cellar with low, grimy ceilings, peeling paint and plaster, and a single window, high up on the right wall. Thin boards, curtains, and an arrangement of beds and bunks variously separate the large space into "rooms" assigned to the boarders of this place, which is the rooming house run by Mikhail Ivanoff Kostilyoff and his wife Vassilisa Karpovna. In one corner stands a large Russian stove, and in the center of the room are a large, dirty, unpainted wooden table and a pair of benches. Though it is an early spring morning, the room is dark, gloomy and resembles nothing so much as a dank prison cell. Coughing and grunting sounds emanate from behind the curtains and above the stove.

From the samovar behind the table, Kvashnya, a vendor of baked meat pies, loudly proclaims that...