Kondraty Dmitrievich Efimovich (russian: Кондратий Дмитриевич Ефимович, 1815—1847) was a Russian

playwright A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays. Etymology The word "play" is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word "wright" is an archaic English ...

and

theatre critic Theatre criticism is a genre of arts criticism, and the act of writing or speaking about the performing arts such as a play or opera. Theatre criticism is distinct from drama criticism, as the latter is a division of literary criticism whereas the ...

, also known under his pen name Ivan Ralyanch (Иван Ралянч). Having debuted in 1844 with ''Espanioletto, or Father and Artist'' (its

Alexandrinsky Theatre The Alexandrinsky Theatre (russian: Александринский театр) or National Drama Theatre of Russia is a theatre in Saint Petersburg, Russia. The Alexandrinsky Theatre was built for the Imperial troupe of Petersburg (Imperial trou ...

production panned by both Nekrasov and Belinsky), Efimovich soon eschewed melodrama in favour of stark realism and in the course of the next two years developed into a sophisticated author, sensitive to Russian lower classes' real life problems, as well as language. Efimovich has been credited as a master of psychological drama of his time, an exponent of the then popular

natural school Natural School (russian: Натуральная школа, Naturalnaya Shkola) is a term applied to the literary movement which arose under the influence of Nikolai Gogol in the 1840s in Russia, and included such diverse authors as Nikolai Nekrasov ...

and a follower of

Gogol Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol; uk, link=no, Мико́ла Васи́льович Го́голь, translit=Mykola Vasyliovych Hohol; (russian: Яновский; uk, Яновський, translit=Yanovskyi) ( – ) was a Russian novelist, ...

. In 1846 he chose to dramatize the latter's ''

Taras Bulba ''Taras Bulba'' (russian: «Тарас Бульба»; ) is a romanticized historical novella set in the first half of the 17th century, written by Nikolai Gogol (1809-1852). It features elderly Zaporozhian Cossack Taras Bulba and his sons And ...

'' only to get himself in trouble with censors who sensed there too much sympathy for the old Cossacks' defiance of the law and order. Efimovich was also an emerging theatre critic whose reviews appeared regularly in the leading Saint Petersburg journals during the last two years of his life.Efimovich's biography
at the Russian Theatre Encyclopedia // Театральная энциклопедия. Том 2/Глав. ред. П. А. Марков - М.: Советская энциклопедия, 1963.

References

Dramatists and playwrights from the Russian Empire Theatre critics from the Russian Empire 1815 births 1847 deaths {{playwright-stub