Vera, or The Nihilists by Oscar Wilde. Short summary

5 seconds

Vera, a revolutionary, falls in love with a nihilist who turns out to be a tsesarevich. She must kill him, but stabs herself with a poisoned dagger.

1 minute

A naive play about Vera Zasulich.

The beautiful terrorist Vera arrives in St. Petersburg. She vows to avenge «all bloodsuckers and tyrants» for her exiled brother and enrolls in an underground cell of revolutionaries.

At a meeting, the chairman raises the suspicion of a certain Alexei that he is a double agent. Policemen burst into the safe house. Alexei orders everyone to put on masks. He tells them that he is Tsesarevich Alexei, and that those present are travelling actors, while he is having an affair with the actress Vera. The revolutionaries are saved.

Alexei asks his father, the Tsar of Russia, to be favorable to the people. He signs a law under which the nihilists can be tried in short order. Alexei admits that he himself is a nihilist. The Tsar, standing by the window, is shot dead.

Alexei tries to carry out reforms. But the conspirators want to kill the Tsar. Vera volunteers to kill Alexei herself and sneaks into the palace. There the lovers confess their feelings to one another and spend a stormy night. In the morning Vera stabs herself with a poisoned dagger.