Anton Chekhov

5. The Seagull at the Moscow Art Theatre, 1898. End of Act Three: Stanislavsky as Trigorin (second from left), Olga Knipper as Arkadina (seated), Vishnevsky as Dorn (far right), Artyom as Shamraev (kneeling).

 

6. Stephen Haggard as Treplyov and Peggy Ashcroft as Nina in Komisarjevsky's production of The Seagull, New Theatre, London, 1936.

 

Josef Svoboda's design for The Seagull, directed by Otomar Krejca at the Narodni Divadlo, Prague, 1960.

Retsuke Sugamote as Nina in the first act of The Seagull, directed by Andrei Serban for the Shiki Theatre Company, Tokyo, 1980.

 

9. The final curtain of Uncle Vanya at the Moscow Art Theatre, 1900. Mariya Lilina as Sonya (left) and Vishnevsky as Vanya.

 

10. Sybil Thorndike as Marina and Laurence Olivier as Astrov in Uncle Vanya at the National Theatre, London, 1962.

 

11. Michel St-Denis' Three Sisters at the Queen's Theatre, London. From left to right: Frederick Lloyd (Chebutykin), Michael Redgrave (Tusenbach), Peggy Ashcroft (Irina), John Gielgud (Vershinin), Leon Quartermaine (Kulygin).

12. Design for the Three Sisters at the Gorki Art Theatre, Moscow, 1940.

 

 

Ivan Moskvin as Yepikhodov in the original production of The Cherry Orchard, Moscow Art Theatre, 1904.

Stanislavsky as Gaev and Lilina as Anya in The Cherry Orchard, Moscow Art Theatre, 1904.

'Vacillation,' in which the poet, a 'solitary man' of fifty, sits in a crowded teashop:

While on the shop and street I gazed My body of a sudden blazed; And twenty minutes, more or less It seemed, so great my happiness, That I was blessed and could bless.⁹

This momentary euphoric wholeness is what Dorn experiences by fusion with mankind, and what he and the rest of the characters ordinarily lack. Each one pursues his own appetites and desires; characteristically, Dorn, who chooses to remain aloof from Polina's entreaties, Masha's cries for help, and Sorin's testy dissatisfaction, is also the only one to appreciate Treplyov's play and to be struck by the concept of a Universal Soul. In his recollection of merging with the crowd, he provides a vision, however fleeting, of another kind of life. It was precisely this communal coming-together that the 'mystical anarchists' and other 'decadent' groups were to prescribe as a new form for the theatre of the future.

And yet Chekhov himself does not succumb to this attractive yet passive alternative. Dorn moves into the crowd 'aimlessly,' after having warned Treplyov of the perils of aimlessness. The antagonist in Trigorin's short story ruins a girl because 'he has nothing better to do'. Arkadina ridicules 'this darling country boredom! Hot, quiet, nobody does a thing, everybody philosophises'. Ultimately, Chekhov prefers the active responsibilities contingent on accepting one's lot, even if this means a fate like Nina's.

6

'Uncle Vanya'

The most unendurable thing, to be sure, the really terrible thing, would be a life without habits, a life which continually required improvisation. Nietzsche, Die froehliche Wissenschaft (1882)

The premise of Uncle Vanya is straightforward. A cele­brated Professor of Fine Arts in the capital, now retired on a reduced income, and married to a young and beautiful second wife, decides to live on an estate left by his deceased first wife. Over the years the estate has been managed by his brother-in-law Ivan Voynitsky and his daughter Sonya, who sacrificed themselves in the belief that the Professor's career was luminous and deserving of support. The couple from Petersburg totally disrupts the even tenor of country life. Confronted with the Professor's selfish vacuity, Voy­nitsky regards his own life as wasted and tries to seduce the languid Yelena. She finds him ridiculous but is in turn attracted to the cynical and overworked rural doctor Astrov. Claiming to promote Sonya's interest in him, she manages both to blight her stepdaughter's hopes and arouse the doctor's amorous inclinations. The mounting tension culminates in an explosion, when the Professor announces his intention to sell the 'state and move to Finland on the proceeds, thereby stranding his relatives. Desperate, Voynitsky tries to shoot him, fails, and then botches a half-hearted attempt at suicide. Finally, the Professor and Yelena depart, followed by Astrov, leaving the original inhabitants of the estate more isolated, despondent and bereft of illusions than they had been at the start.