[1][2] The play is representative of Andreyev's "panpsyche theatre" in which the plot focuses on developing the internal, psychological and intellectual aspects of characters over external action.

[1] Set inside a circus within a French city, the play's main character is a mysterious 39-year-old stranger (referred to as "He"; Russian тот, tot, "that one") whose name is never revealed to the audience.

[1] "He" falls in love with the horseback rider Consuelo, but her father, Count Mancini, is intent on marrying his daughter to Baron Regnard for his money.

[1] The Gentleman in hopes of repairing their relationship has been searching all over Europe for "He" for months, as his friend disappeared mysteriously after leaving an angry letter.

In a letter to the actress E.A.Polevitskaya September 28, 1915, he stressed that the disclosure of his "one of the most important tasks of the artist and director: to show the goddess under the tinsel jockey and acrobat.

"[2] The work premiered at the Moscow Art Theatre on October 27, 1915 to tepid critical reviews, but tremendous popularity with audiences who applauded continuously through fourteen curtain calls.

[2] Numerous productions of the work were presented in Russia and Estonia over the next two decades, including performances in Kiev, Syzran, Voronezh, and Tallinn among others.

[14] Several more stagings of the play in English followed, including a production at the Le Petit Theatre du Vieux Carre in New Orleans (1924).

[15] That same year the play was mounted for the first time in the United Kingdom at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre with Stanley Lathbury as "He", Ralph Richardson as "Gentleman", Muriel Hewitt as Consuella, Alan Howland as Polly, and Edward Chapman as Tilly using an English language translation by Gertrude Schurhoff and Sir Barry V. Jackson; the latter of whom directed the production.

[16] In 1927 the play was mounted in London for the first time at the Everyman Theatre in Hampstead with Milton Rosmer as "He", Frederick Lloyd as "Gentleman", Gabrielle Casartelli as Consuelo, Dorie Sawyer as Zinida, Godfrey Baxter as Alfred Bezano, and Brember Wills as Mancini.

[17] In 1952 that theater mounted the work again in a celebrated revival directed by Oliver Marlow Wilkinson with David March as "He", Susan Dowdall as Consuelo, John McKelvey as Briquet, Hugh Manning as Count Mancini, Mary Savidge as Zinida, and Ronnie Barker as Polly.

Other cast member included Audrey Fildes as Consuelo, Eileen Herlie as Zinida, Arnold Marlé as Briquet, Noel Willman as Count Mancini, Scott Forbes as Bezano, Percy Heming as Jackson, and Henry Edwards as Baron Reynard.

Helpmann portrayed Funny ("He"), with Audrey Fildes as Consuelo, Margaret Diamond as Zinida, Arnold Marlé as Briquet, Ernest Milton as Count Mancini, Leonard White as Bezano, Stanley Ratcliffe as Jackson, Alfie Bass as Tilly, Peter Varley as Polly, and Basil Coleman as "Gentleman".

[24] In 1952 literary critic Peter Bayley directed a production of the play for University College Players starring a young Maggie Smith as Consuelo.

[28] In 1995 the Hudson Theater won an Ovation Award for their production of the play which was directed by Dan Shor and starred Bud Cort as "He".

[30] Critic S. Goloushev was more complimentary of the play and speaks of "He" as a role that requires a tragic actor of Chaliapin's scale for its performance.

In his analysis the main character "He" is "revealing of the clear outlines of an ancient myth under the guise of reality we are experiencing.

Thoth, is an envoy of another, higher world, the Creator of ideas, who descended to the circus arena, again took on his humiliated appearance, a rabbit's eyesight, voclauned, to again accept the sourdough.

[2] Contemporary playwright Victoria Nikiforova notes: "Leonid Andreev's play should appeal to lovers of indie melodramas and Emmerich Kálmán's operettas.

He Who Gets Slapped anticipated the plot of Die Zirkusprinzessin ten years earlier and the heated atmosphere of Seeta Aur Geeta by fifty.

[1] Russian studies academic Frederick H. White writes, "Andreev’s play about betrayal and revenge, seemingly, struck a chord with modern industrial America, during the unscrupulous Gilded Age of robber barons and a period of great social change due to a rapidly increasing immigrant population, a period in American history when the circus crisscrossed the country providing a vivid cultural window into this era’s complex and volatile web of historical changes.