Chekov Plays

How to describe this…

You know that idea that in Chekhov’s plays nobody does anything, just talk about it…well that has come up several times to me recently, in conversation, via email, and in group discussion. And I just don’t agree with that notion. Don’t get me wrong, I can easily understand why people might think and feel that way, depending on reading and/or seeing a Chekhov play (as in one of the major plays). I’ve seen some productions that really are just talk (and not good) and I’ve seen a couple of productions that were full of weird but supposedly comic behavior. In each of those instances the precise dramatic action of the play and the characters, and the actual doing of things, was indeed absent as could be. Nothing happened! But, that doesn’t mean things shouldn’t happen in Chekhov’s plays, and very precise things for that matter, as established and set out by Chekhov in the writing. And I’m not referring specifically to, or just about subtext or “interior character action” (thoughts, emotions, sensations) – though that is part of it. I am talking about specific circumstances and events unfolding right in front of the spectators, with immediate implications for all.

Let’s imagine on one hand those dry intellectual mundane productions, where everyone either seems to be living on some philosophical island or caught up in emotional stagnation, and on the other hand those productions where they insist the play is funny and/or hip and go about trying to demonstrate such with unusual and uncanny character behavior. Now imagine a third way where the plays are realized with all the factors set forth by Chekhov given proper consideration and execution, logical and precise and “forward moving.” In this seemingly mythical third way, the characters don’t seem like bored Russian elite or odd drunks, but rather seem like you and me, everyday ordinary people. And the action that takes places before our spectator eyes is not hapless and endless talking and not dreamed up stage fanfare, but charming and clever unfolding of real people in particular places and circumstance. In the first two ways Chekhov is either a bygone era, or a fancy rendering of something old made “relevant.” In the third way Chekhov is eternity.

Now to realize a production the third way requires sensibilities, discipline, and consideration in piecing together the factors that Chekhov gives to us and turning the consequences of those into precise and logical behavior on stage. But it’s not impossible. Not long ago I watched a production of The Three Sisters on DVD (private “homemade” DVD), a production with primarily student actors in fact, and lo and behold, here were characters “doing things” and making complete sense. Now mind you, these girls did not literally end up in Moscow by the end of the play but along the course of it I wasn’t thinking why don’t they just shoot themselves already. Because things kept happening in the moment, there was excitement in the moment, with surprises and mystery and story. And at the end of the play Moscow was not just a distant city, memory or painful goal, but was that true thematic representation of the grandeur and love in a person’s soul, in life.

So it’s not impossible this third way - rare though it may be.

What more I want to say about this…I’m not sure right now. But probably I will return to it.