just re-read some Chekhov plays - what say you about Anton?

[tigereye]

Just re-read The Seagull and The Three Sisters after many years, for book group. Too cynical? Too passionate? Too acutely aware of the human condition?


Any thoughts?



(this sank like a stone in the lounge - silly me.)

[villager]

1. Been thinking about ol' Chekov, lately...

had a recent discussion about how "The Seagull" struck me, when I first saw it in my teens (The 70's PBS "Great Performances" version...)

Been a long while since I've read -- or dare I say, been in -- any Chekov...

What's the American equivalent of pining for Moscow?

[tigereye]

2. pining for NYC or San Francisco? (or pining for the "old country" )?

I don't know. I don't think Americans are as, hmm, existential/nostalgic in the same way as Victorian-era Russians are. There's a moody Eastern European, long-suffering quality that we don't seem to possess.



I will be really interested to see how my friends (who are mostly retired academics or current professors of English, will see the plays in this re-reading. Apparently we are going to act some of them out! That should be cool.

[villager]

3. Acting them out should be fun! And it *could* be San Francisco...

inasmuch as I grew up in the Bay Area, and currently live in El Lay! ;-)

[Sal Minella]

4. Peter Sarsgard (Trigorin) interview about "The Seagull" is in the current Theater section of The

New York Times -- (link won't copy) -- how the audience responds to the comedic aspect of Checkhov's writing during some performances, and during other performances, the audience seems to perceive nothing but the tragedy and doesn't respond to the funny scenes at all....

That's exactly what I remember about reading Checkhov in my earlier years -- suffering and wit and time harnessed together like a troika. Loved him then.

Watched "The Seagull" with Blythe Danner as Nina and Frank Langella as Konstantin the other night, and recommend can that production. Danner is a stunning Nina, but their interpretation leans more to the tragic than to the comic. I think Anton did not want to be taken that seriously.

[villager]

5. Is that "Seagull" on DVD? That's the one I saw on PBS...

... many moons ago, and still remember how it struck me. Being sort of Konstantin-aged myself 'round then....

[tigereye]

7. I love how everyone complains how if they worked, they would be so much

happier - and then my history prof friend reminded me that when he wrote that play, there was a lot of social upheaval and industrialization giong on, as well as the displacement of elites and aristocrats.


I also like his strong female characters.

[Sal Minella]

8. Ah yes, the beautiful wild-hearted poet man-child.....ah yes.

For myself, I find that I've become MUCH more empathetic with Arkadina and Mrs. Robinson and similar characters ... for some odd reason...

Netflix has the DVD, and I recommend it highly.
http://www.netflix.com/Movie/The_Seagull/70014046?trkid=222336&lnkctr=srchrd-sr&strkid=99091944_0_0

Langella and Danner are also the leads in Tennessee Williams' Eccentricities of a Nightingale which I also recommend highly, also available from Netflix.

Saw Patti LuPone live in "Three Sisters" in Ann Arbor in the 'seventies -- she was a tiny little thing whose suffering filled the theater.

[tigereye]

11. in which role? Masha?

Irina?

[Sal Minella]

12. The youngest sister (I lost the names over the past thirty-odd years, some of them

VERY odd years indeed, I assure you)..... guess I could take the time to look it up!

In that same theater season, she and Kevin Kline were the leads in "Robber Bridegroom" which was terrific as a stage show -- the actress who played the crow would lift her long skirt up over her back and spread it out like wings and perch on the foot of the bed cawing madly -- she simply became a huge black bird before our eyes. Much more exciting than any kind of animation or CG could be.

This was John Houseman's "The Acting Company" and I'm surprised to find them in Wikipedia! Looks like they're still in business.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Acting_Company

[tigereye]

6. I laughed a lot while reading them - it may have been a function of

seeing numerous over the top performances back when, or just that I am someone who tends to laugh at fatalism....

I think they are highly comic and ironic.

[Sal Minella]

9. I think Chekhov wanted us to laugh.

[tigereye]

10. I think so too!

Apparently he was be pleased when folks performed the play in too serious a way.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

13. I think The Cherry Orchard was published as A Comedy in Three Acts

I could be wrong, but I think I recall that.

The conniving sister-in-law in the 3 Sisters could probably be played to comic effect.

Ah, Moscow. We always wanted to go/live there. Move to window. Pass bowl of beets. Munch reflectively.