About the book: 2018 / Two officials of either the 18th or 20th century, realizing that their previous life was neither bright nor dim, and somehow in the middle, they decide to become theater artists. Having scribbled a couple of songs in the spirit of sentimentalism and sold several cows from their parents' farmstead to buy a carriage and props, they set off on a tour of the mysterious kingdom of Shlyapshchina. The first city on their way is the strange provincial Chumshchsk, where artists are not taken at all for who they are.…