[2] "I am now working upon a new large play which will be finished in November," Ostrovsky wrote to his friend, the Alexandrinka actor Fyodor Burdin in October 1869.
It also featured Sofia Akimova (as Matryona Kharitonovna), Glikeriya Fedotova (Parasha), Aleksandr Fedotov (Silan), Vasily Zhivokini (Gradoboyev), Vladimir Dmitrevsky (Khlynov), Sergey Shumsky (Aristarkh), Dmitry Zhivokini (Narkis), Nikolai Muzil (Gavrila), Mikhail Tretyakov-Strelsky (Vasya the Quick One), Konstantin Konstantinov (Landlord), Nikolai Nikiforov (Sidorenko).
[5] On 15 January 1869 An Ardent Heart was performed in Saint Petersburg's Alexandrinsky Theatre, as Yulia Linskaya's benefit (she played Matryona Kharitonovna), featuring Pavel Vasilyev (Kuroslepov), Yelena Struyskaya (Parasha), Pyotr Zubrov (Silan), Vasily Samoylov (Gradoboyev), Fyodor Burdin (Khlynov), Nikolai Zubov (Aristarkh), Ivan Gorbunov (Narkis), Nikolai Sazonov (Vasya the Quick One).
They proved to be completely ignorant there about what the 'folk drama' genre was about, and the production... was so negligent and incompetent, it wouldn't have been recognized at all by those who'd seen the play [in Moscow]," he later wrote.
According to The Society of Russian Dramatists, in 1874-1886 the play was missing from the two major cities theatres' respective repertoires but enjoyed more than 30 productions in the province.
Sanina, Varlamov, Davydov, Medvedev, Shapovalenko all together reconstructed this 'realm of darkness', a brutal force of despotism which made us all wince with horror.
Everyday routines, stale customs, this whole way of life hung like a dark heavy cloud over an ardent heart, smothering rays of light, making it impossible for a living being to break through this web of harsh reality.
The 1926 Moscow Art Theatre's production was considered to be one of the best, with actors like Ivan Moskvin (Khlynov), Mikhail Tarkhanov (Gradoboyev), Vladimir Gribunin (Kuroslepov), Boris Dobronravov (Narkis), Nikolai Khmelyov (Silan) and Faina Shevchenko (Matryona) involved.