Russian Dramatic Greats - Chekhov & Stanislavski
Reading Chekhov; The Seagull, Uncle Vanya, The Three Sisters & More
Nov 13, 2009
Anton Chekhov (1860-1904) was a man of many virtues; a master of the short story form, a pioneer of dramatic narrative and a dedicated physician. However, despite his legacy as one of Russia's greatest dramatic and fiction writers, his relationship with 19th century Russian theatre audiences was not always an easy one.
In 1896 a daring new play of his - The Seagull - was badly received by critics after being deemed too experimental for its audience's tastes. Fortunately, a fateful collaboration with the actor/director Constantin Stanislavski in 1898 redeemed the play's reputation - and that of Chekhov's.
Chekhov's Legacy and 'A Theatre of Mood'
Chekhov's plays have been noted for the centrality of their action, revolving around a microcosm of a commonly bourgeois Russian society rooted in its place. This gives his plays a somewhat claustrophobic air, which is picked up and reacted upon by the internal turmoils of his characters.
The tense undercurrent which runs through the lives of Chekhov's characters, his fixation on the internal and the emotional rather than on external plot, is what gives Chekhov's plays their depth and intensity. The Russian theatre director Vsevolod Meyerhold captured Chekhov's theatre style with the following words: "Chekhov's art demands a theatre of mood."
Much has been made of a line uttered in The Seagull by the aspiring symbolist playwright Konstantin, who says: "What we need is a new kind of theatre... We need new forms... I don't want to show life how it is, or the way it should be, but the way it is in dreams."
Whilst Chekhov's plays adhere to the conventions of time and place that apply to naturalistic drama, as a writer he was preoccupied with exploring tension between characters and their environment. Compared to later Russian writers such as Vladimir Mayakovsky, whose style was radically dream-like and surreal, Chekhov does not seem like a likely candidate for pioneering modernism in literature. However, he was admired by later modern writers such as Virginia Woolf and Vladimir Nabokov for the tone of uncertainty and disharmony which drives his works.
Chekhov and Stanislavski
Chekhov found his plays' true expression in working with the Moscow-born Stanislavski, who undertook to direct his works for the innovative Moscow Art Theatre. Stanislavski's eye for subtext and psychological realism brought out the subtleties of Chekhov's texts. The Moscow Art Theatre went on to commission four of Chekhov's plays; The Seagull, Uncle Vanya, Three Sisters and The Cherry Orchard.
Stanislavski said of Chekhov: "Chekhov often expressed his thought not in speeches but in pauses or between the lines or in replies consisting of a single word... the characters often feel and think things not expressed in the lines they speak."
Stanislavski's revolutionary form of theatre directing - known as the 'Stanislavski System' - lent Chekhov's characters the air of brooding repression which they embody. Stanislavski trained his actors to convey strong emotions such as passion and pain in a controlled and partially-detached manner - a technique picked up later on by the American 'Method' actors of the 1930s and 1940s. At the time of the staging of The Seagull in 1898 his method was deemed as a groundbreaking form of directing.
The Moscow Art Theatre Plays (1898-1904); The Seagull, Uncle Vanya, Three Sisters and The Cherry Orchard
The Seagull (publ.1895) - in which Stanislavski performed himself - was the first of Chekhov's plays to be directed by Stanislavski for the Moscow Art Theatre. Produced in 1898, the play presents an artistic and ideological clash between its diverse array of characters, which include writers, actresses, a doctor and a teacher. It's production notes were compiled by Stanislavski in an extremely detailed and precise manner, involving many mannerisms and motions (such as the wiping of sweat) which abolished the affected style of acting popular during the 19th century. The play was described during the writing process by Chekhov himself as a 'comedy' with "a great deal of conversation about literature, little action, (and) tons of love."
The performance of Uncle Vanya (publ. 1899) a year later focused its action (as in The Seagull) on a bourgeois family estate. The plot revolves around the regrets and love intrigues between two branches of a family. Adapted from an earlier play called The Wood Demon, its themes deal with longing and nostalgia, as well as the frustration - and boredom - of an idle life of wasted potential.
The Three Sisters (publ. 1900) presents the story of the Prozorov family and their struggle to adapt to a life of boredom in a provincial garrison town. The play - which was performed in 1901 - features the reminiscinces of the four siblings' priviledged childhood in Moscow, which stands as a past symbol for a golden era enjoyed by the middle-classes. The sisters' trials and insecurities heralded a sign of the changing times and an inability to adapt to the present moment in history.
The Cherry Orchard - performed in 1904 - retains the elements of tragic-comedy familiar to readers of Chekhov's plays. Another 'estate' play, its chief symbol is that of a cherry orchard - which stands for noble heritage and status. As the aristocratic family struggles to save the orchard from being auctioned to pay off the estate's mortgage, their campaign turns into an allegory; that of the Russian aristocracy's struggle for survival in the face of debt and the rising bourgeoisie. Considering that serfdom was abolished in Russian in the mid-19th century, the play deals with a popular source of discontent amongst the noble classes - the demise of inherited wealth against the rise of middle-class economic aspiration.
Sources:
Chekhov: A Collection of Critical Essays, ed. Robert Louis Jackson. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1967.
Russian Dramatic Greats' continues in a fourth part which includes discussion of the theatre-directing styles of Stanislavski and Meyerhold.
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