BY ANTON CHEKHOV
I have not seen a lot of Chekhov. Three Sisters and Marriage Proposal are the only two other plays I have seen by this playwright. In all cases, including the present one, I have been less than enamored by the production. I’m beginning to suspect that in all cases it is more a matter of Chekhov than the production, and it’s more a matter of the Slavic origins of the words than the acting. In translation the words simply don’t “sparkle” the way I expect them to in a first-class theatrical presentation. I’m beginning to suspect that the translation may be the key to presenting a program that is really alive with flesh and blood characters.
While I used the definite article in the name of the play for this posting's title, I omitted it in the names of the two other Chekhov plays I mention in the opening paragraph. Russian does not have articles; they get along just fine without them, thank you. (English is one of the minority of the world's languages that uses articles.) To me, omitting them makes a substantial difference in the timbre and tessitura of the language, if I may be permitted to borrow some musical terms to describe spoken rather than sung language.
I have not seen a lot of Chekhov. Three Sisters and Marriage Proposal are the only two other plays I have seen by this playwright. In all cases, including the present one, I have been less than enamored by the production. I’m beginning to suspect that in all cases it is more a matter of Chekhov than the production, and it’s more a matter of the Slavic origins of the words than the acting. In translation the words simply don’t “sparkle” the way I expect them to in a first-class theatrical presentation. I’m beginning to suspect that the translation may be the key to presenting a program that is really alive with flesh and blood characters.
While I used the definite article in the name of the play for this posting's title, I omitted it in the names of the two other Chekhov plays I mention in the opening paragraph. Russian does not have articles; they get along just fine without them, thank you. (English is one of the minority of the world's languages that uses articles.) To me, omitting them makes a substantial difference in the timbre and tessitura of the language, if I may be permitted to borrow some musical terms to describe spoken rather than sung language.
That being said I should note that first of all this was a preview that I saw and the naturally occurring learning curve of the cast may have not yet had an opportunity to reach its full potential; the give and take of dialog at some points was not always believable. Second, this is an American production of what is clearly a Russian sensibility; I don’t think that Americans are completely at ease with Russians and their weltanschauung. Although I have personally known but two native Muscovites I find their personal views of life to be quite different from my own. They are, never-the-less, vivid and animated views that I somehow found lacking in this production. Perhaps it is something as simple as a cultural difference not fully understood.
Would I see more Chekhov? Absolutely. You can’t ignore one of the giants of early theatre. Would I see more Raven? Again, I’m firmly in the Raven camp. I even purchased next season’s subscription while I was there. This was a difficult production for me to love, but not everything in life can be stellar, after all. A different viewer may have a completely different reaction.
[The] Cherry Orchard now through July 23rd at Raven Theatre, 6157 N Clark Street Chicago IL 60660, Phone: (773) 338-2177 Email: info@raventheatre.com. Recommended for the serious theatre-goer.
Would I see more Chekhov? Absolutely. You can’t ignore one of the giants of early theatre. Would I see more Raven? Again, I’m firmly in the Raven camp. I even purchased next season’s subscription while I was there. This was a difficult production for me to love, but not everything in life can be stellar, after all. A different viewer may have a completely different reaction.
[The] Cherry Orchard now through July 23rd at Raven Theatre, 6157 N Clark Street Chicago IL 60660, Phone: (773) 338-2177 Email: info@raventheatre.com. Recommended for the serious theatre-goer.
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