(c)2005
Summary
Letters of Anton Chekhov to his family and friends -- With a Biographical Sketch, Translated by Constance Garnett * eBooks@Adelaide 2004"Small Chekhov":
Wedding & More
Questions
Antohins (Russian Corner) Russian & Soviet Theatre (Rudnitzki) *Notes
"The Three Sisters" (1901) is said to act better than any other of Chekhov's plays, and should surprise an English audience exceedingly. It and "The Cherry Orchard" are the tragedies of doing nothing. The three sisters have only one desire in the world, to go to Moscow and live there. There is no reason on earth, economic, sentimental, or other, why they should not pack their bags and take the next train to Moscow. But they will not do it. They cannot do it. And we know perfectly well that if they were transplanted thither miraculously, they would be extremely unhappy as soon as ever the excitement of the miracle had worn off. In the other play Mme. Ranevsky can be saved from ruin if she will only consent to a perfectly simple step--the sale of an estate. She cannot do this, is ruined, and thrown out into the unsympathetic world. Chekhov is the dramatist, not of action, but of inaction. The tragedy of inaction is as overwhelming, when we understand it, as the tragedy of an Othello, or a Lear, crushed by the wickedness of others. The former is being enacted daily, but we do not stage it, we do not know how. But who shall deny that the base of almost all human unhappiness is just this inaction, manifesting itself in slovenliness of thought and execution, education, and ideal? [ from Chekhov Plays, Volume 2, Translated by Julius West ]Chekhov Plays * 2005 Dramaturg Page *
3 SISTERS Dramaturgy Page *
The Three Sisters (Dover Thrift Editions) $1.50 0486275442
Humorous gems by one of the masters of modern drama, including The Anniversary, a frenetic, behind-the-scenes look at the goings-on in a bank; An Unwilling Martyr, a humorous recital of an overburdened man’s chores and obligations; as well as The Wedding, The Bear and The Proposal.
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To Moscow... "The Citie of Mosco is great, the houses for the most part of wood, and some of stone, with windowes of Iron, which serve for Summer time. There are many faire Churches of stone, but more of wood, which are hot in the Winter time. The Emperours lodging is in a faire and large Castle, walled foure square of Bricke, high and thicke, situated upon an Hill, two miles about, and the River on the South-west side of it, and it hath sixteene gates in its walls, and as many Bulwarkes." (Anthony Jeninkson, 1625, The First Voyage, 1557, in Purchase His Pilgrimes)
