Chekhov: The Major Plays

I was doing a showcase performance that included scenes from the Seagull and the Cherry Orchard. We were given scripts and began working, but it wasn't until I read Curt Columbus's translation that it really clicked inside my head what was happening. This book is a great tool for an actor or just to read, and provides a more modern take on the material. Somewhere between all the English translations lies the essence of the original Russian stories. I recommend reading as many different translations as possible.

Dr. Anton Chekhov (1860-1904) was the first major Russian writer who was not an aristocrat. His grandfather had been a serf. Chekhov was a brilliant genius of classic short stories and plays. In this Modern Library edition his four most famous plays are translated into English. Those plays are: 1. The Seagull: This 1896 play won fame for Chekhov following its production at the Moscow Art Theatre. The work deals with the love of the fledgling playwright Trepilov in love with Nina who dreams of becoming a great actress. Nina falls in love with the famous playwright Trigorin running away with him. In despair, Trepilov plays a dead seagull which he has shot down at the feet of Nina. Two years later, Nina returns to the estate deserted by her quondom lover the scamp Trigorin. She declares that her life has been shot down just as the seagull was earlier brought down to death. Trigorin attempts suicide for the second time and is successful in this effort. The play is beautifully written and the theme of being busy with work is prominent. It is a play about the hard work necessary by a playwright as well as dealing with a tragic love story. 2. Uncle Vanya-This 1899 play deals with the kindly Uncle Vanya who has managed the estate of professor Serebryakov for many years. Vanya comes to realize that the lazy professor is an academic fraud. Vanya falls in love with the professor's lovely second wife Elena Andreyevna. She rejects him as a lover. The inept Vanya then attempts to kill the professor with a gun but fails. The professor forgives him though he agrees not to sell the estate which Vanya feared would occur. Life returns to normal. 3. The Three Sisters-The play deals with the boring lives of three sisters from Moscow: Olga, Masha and Irina who live in a provincial city of 100,000. The three women dream of returning to Moscow; fall in love with various officers stationed in the town but at the end of Act IV remain in their dull lives. The play deals with ordinary day to day existence. The lives of the characters are jejune as they yearn to be free of everyday responsibilities. They remind this reviewer of Thoreau's famous line about people living lives of "quiet desperation." 4. The Cherry Orchard deals with the forced sale of a beautiful Cherry Orchard by an aristocratic family experiencing hard economic times. The plangent sound of an ax cutting down the cherry trees ends the play. All of these plays were written in four acts. Their major themes are the need for work even in a world where such effort might seem futile. Chekhov's focus is on families of the lower aristocracy and middle class. He wrote on the eve of Russian revolution as the old way of life was about to pass from the scene forever.

I had to read this for a class that I had. I know it is representative of Russian literature, but it's very bleak and depressing. None of the plays have a really happy ending, but they do have good endings. My least favorite of the plays was Three Sisters, and my favorite was Cherry Orchard. Three Sisters, in my opinion is about the most bleak, unsatisfying, and depressing play about life and love I have ever read. Cherry Orchard is, in my opinion well thought out, bad things happen in this play, but there are reasons for these occurances, and it also has the most satisfying ending of all the plays in this book. Seagull, Uncle Vanya, and Ivanov aren't really bad, but aren't spectacular. If you want to read a light-hearted and easy going play, don't read this. They were interesting enough for me to give this four stars, they aren't bad for the most part, but aren't spectacular either.

I read an edition that had only two of these plays, so my review is based on two plays only - "The Cherry Orchard" and "The Three Sisters". Chekov's trademark is to write about strong and determined women. This is quite a stretch since the plays were written in the very early twentieth century. These plays are superbly crafted, and the drama unfolds like a flower in slow motion photography. His characters in both are also wonderful. It would be a real treat to see even one of these masterpieces performed on the stage. I recommend this author highly to anyone interested in adding plays to their reading repertoire

I thuroughly enjoyed the works of Chekhov, the writer who helped define the famous Moscow Art Theatre. His plot twists are a bit difficult to grasp outside of a theatre, but still very enjoyable.Chekhov utilizes a realistic writing style. Fantastic and absurd stories where the actors just flailed around on stage and delivered their lines were of little use to him. His plays can be viewed in many different ways. A scene that at one moment can seem tragic, can be comedic if looked at another way. There is no consistant good or evil in a Chekhov piece. He once wrote, "depict life as it actually is. Its aim is truth, unconditional and honest... a man of letters... has to... realize that dung heaps play a very significant role in a landscape and that evil passions are as inherent in life as good ones." He wanted the emotions that the characters were experiencing to be sensed in the actions of the actors on stage, not in the words that anyone could sit down and read. This makes his work some of the more difficult to perform in theatre today. Only an experienced actor who is able to create a reality of their character is capable of performing a Chekhov play. Chekhov's comedies are often mistaken for tragidies. They are actually perfect examples of high comedy. In a true tragedy, the main characters have some heroic qualities that make their fall devestating to the audience. The characters in Chekhov's plays "The Seagull," and "The Cherry Orchard" have no such qualities. Chekhov also had a very particular way of writing his play. He set out with a purpose. He felt that the writer of the play needed a clearly defined reason to be writing, or else they would find themselves lost with a mediocre piece of work.