This is a fine collection of Chekhov’s four most famous plays.
The Seagull is my least favourite – it’s concerned with the theatre a little too much for my liking. The ending is great, though.
- Written by Anton Chekhov
- Date premiered: 17 October 1896
- Place premiered: Alexandrinsky Theatre, St. Petersburg, Russia
- Original language: Russian
- Genre: Comedy
- Setting Sorin’s country estate
- Cast of Characters:
- Irina Nikolayevna Arkadina – an actress
- Konstantin Gavrilovich Treplyov – Irina’s son, a playwright
- Boris Alexeyevich Trigorin – a well-known writer
- Nina Mikhailovna Zarechnaya – the daughter of a rich landownerPjotr Nikolayevich Sorin – Irina’s brother
- Ilya Afanasyevich Shamrayev – a retired lieutenant and the manager of Sorin’s estate
- Polina Andryevna – Ilya’s wife
- Masha – Ilya and Polina’s daughter
- Yevgeny Sergeyevich Dorn – a doctor
- Semyon Semyonovich Medvedenko – a teacher
- Yakov – a hired workman
- Cook – a worker on Sorin’s estate
- Maid – a worker on Sorin’s estate
- Watchman – a worker on Sorin’s estate; he carries a warning stick at night
Uncle Vanya is the kind of thing I would have devoured in my early twenties. It’s borderline existential the conflict between the old and the new – or the pretty and the ugly – is something that has always fascinated me.
- Written by Anton Chekhov
- Original language: Russian
- Setting: Garden of the Serebryakov family estate
- Cast of Characters:
- Aleksandr Vladimirovich Serebryakov (Александр Владимирович Серебряков): a retired university professor, who has lived for years in the city on the earnings of his late first wife’s rural estate, managed for him by Vanya and Sonya
- Helena Andreyevna Serebryakova (Yelena) (Елена Андреевна Серебрякова): Professor Serebryakov’s young and beautiful second wife; she is 27 years old
- Sofia Alexandrovna Serebryakova (Sonya) (Софья Александровна Серебрякова): Professor Serebryakov’s daughter from his first marriage; she is of a marriageable age, but is considered plain
- Maria Vasilyevna Voynitskya (Мария Васильевна Войницкая): the widow of a privy councilor and mother of Vanya (and of Vanya’s late sister, the Professor’s first wife)
- Ivan Petrovich Voynitsky (“Uncle Vanya”) (Иван Петрович Войницкий): Maria’s son and Sonya’s uncle, the title character of the play; he is 47 years old
- Mikhail Lvovich Astrov (Михаил Львович Астров): a middle aged country doctor.
- Ilya Ilych Telegin (Илья Ильич Телегин; nicknamed “Waffles” for his pockmarked skin): an impoverished landowner, who now lives on the estate as a dependent of the family
- Marina Timofeevna (Марина Тимофеевна): an old nurse
- A Workman
Three Sisters feels to me like the most iconic of these plays – not being familiar with it I still felt like I have seen echoes of it in other works. It reminds me a little bit of The Iceman Cometh in terms of the “grass is always greener” / “I am going to do something about it tomorrow” attitude of many of the characters.
- Written by Anton Chekhov
- Characters:
- Prozorov family:
- Olga Sergeyevna Prozorova
- Maria Sergeyevna Kulygina
- Irina Sergeyevna Prozorova
- Andrei Sergeyevich Prozorov
- Prozorov family:
- Date premiered: 1901, Moscow
- Original language: Russian
- Genre: Drama
- Setting: A provincial Russian garrison town
To me, The Cherry Orchard is his masterpiece, both hysterically funny and profoundly moving. I know people like this and have, myself, behaved like this at times. I see too much life reflected in it.
- Written by Anton Chekhov
- Date premiered: 1903
- Place premiered: Moscow Art Theatre
- Original language: Russian
- Genre: Drama
9/10