1. Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (Антон Павлович Чехов) (1860-1904)
Presentation by Anna Kadnikova

2. Anton Chekhov “Medicine is my legal wife…Literature is my mistress”
Physician
Major Russian short story writer
Playwright

3. Early Years and Literature
Mother – excellent storyteller
School life –gained a reputation for: satyrical comments, making up humorous nicknames
Wrote his own anecdotes and funny stories in adolescence

4. Early Years and Theater
Took part in amateur theatrical performances
First performance attended – Jacques Offenbach’s La Belle Helene
Spent virtually all his savings on tickets to theater!
First serious long play– “Fatherless” (“Безотцовщина”) (destroyed)

5. Medicine, Prose and Drama
Medical School at Moscow State University
1883 – resigns due to sickness. Devotes the rest of his life to literature
Mainly wrote short stories – they are considered the apotheosis of form
Playwrighting career – brief – but had a great impact on dramatic literature and performance

6. Major Plays The Seagull («Чайка») Uncle Vanya («Дядя Ваня»)
Three Sisters («Три сестры»)
The Cherry Orchard («Вишнёвый сад»)

7. The Seagull The first of four major plays.
Centers on the romantic and artistic conflicts between four theatrical characters.
First perfomance – a famous failure
Staged by Stanislavsky – sound success

8. The Cherry Orchard
Family of impoverished nobles whose beautiful cherry orchard (which they are attached to) is heavily mortgaged
Characters seek to find a way of saving the garden but cease to do so.
Merchant Lopakhin (his ancestors were serfs) buys the garden and “lays an axe to it”

9. The Cherry Orchard
Lopakhin: “Lay the axe to the orchard! Come and see the trees fall down!”
Trophimov: “All Russia is our orchard!”
New Epoch is Coming. Romanticism gives a way to Commercialism. The Past is never to return.
Chekhov’s attitude: pessimistic or optimistic? – still causes arguments.

10. Uncle Vanya Structurally and psychologically complex drama
Estate in 19th century Russia
Exploring complex relationships between people
Themes of weakness, delusion and despair, but courage and hope as well

11. The Three Sisters Decay of the privileged class in Russia
Search for meaning in the modern world
Family that is dissatisfied and frustrated with its present existence

12. Chekhov’s Talent and Manner
Selecting important moments from the trivial ones
Brevity and conciseness
Anti-ideological
Anti-pedagogical
Objectivity
Free artist

13. Chekhov’s Talent and Manner
No blame for anybody
Acute delineation of human weaknesses and delights, of human psychology
Naturalist of the theater
Delineation of ordinary characters
Exceptional importance of dialogue
(What is said is more important that what is done!)

14. Chekhov and Stanislavsky
collaborators – both paid closer attention to the important unsaid messages within the writing
Chekhov by many is acknowledged as someone who made Stanislavsky’s Theater famous
Some arguments. E.g., Cherry Orchard – comedy(Chekhov) or drama (Stanislavsky)?

15. Chekhov About His Plays
“You say you have cried at my plays…But this is not why I wrote them, it was Stanislavsky who turned them into cry-babies.I simply wanted to say to people honestly: “Understand, how bad and boring your lives are!” People should understand this and…create themselves another and better life. What is here to cry about?”

16. Chekhov’s Impact and Influence
Contemporary Russians celebrated Chekhov
International fame – after World War I (Constance Garnett’s English translations)
Immensely popular in the UK in the 1920s
In the US – fame came later (through the influence of Stanislavsky’s method)
Many writers and playwrights used Chekhovian techniques throughout the XX century, almost none escaped his influence

17. Films and Theater Productions
Among many others:
- Lanford Wilson’s “The Three Sisters”(1997)
Emil Loteanu’s “My Tender and Affectionate Beast”(Мой ласковый и нежный зверь)(1978)
Nikita Mikhalkov’s “Dark Eyes”(1987)

18. Sources
Anton Chekhov – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia; available at
“Three Plays of Absurd” Anton Chekhov Available at
The Social Significance of the Modern Drama. Emma Goldman. Boston: Richard G. Badger, pp
ANTON CHEKHOV. available at
Chekhov’s Quotes. Available at
«Антон Павлович Чехов» Энциклопедия «Аванта+» «Русская литература». Москва, 1998