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Audible Theatre Collection: Chekhov
Despite his early death from tuberculosis at the age of 44, Chekhov was a prolific writer and produced more than 250 short stories in addition to several novellas and a novel. The Russian was also a practicing doctor.
A celebrated playwright, Anton Chekhov is often recognised as an influential figure of early modernism of the theatre in addition to being held in high esteem by the likes of George Bernard Shaw and Virginia Woolf, although much praise was not as forthcoming until after his death in 1904.
This collection features three plays. Dark comedy The Seagull, is the first of what are considered his 'major plays'. Three Sisters tells the story of a trio of sisters lonely after their father dies and The Cherry Orchard has a dual comedy and tragedy narrative.
The Seagull
Written in 1895 and a master class in the art and power of subtext, The Seagull follows the romantic and artistic conflicts between its four main characters, all dissatisfied with life. Some desire love. Some desire success. Some desire artistic genius. No one seems able to attain happiness.
Tragic and often darkly comic, The Seagull is a timeless classic and an early exercise in addressing the pitfalls of depression and lack of satisfaction in life and purpose.
Full cast: Samantha Bond, Catrin Stewart, Freddie Fox, Anthony Howell, Katherine Kingsley, John Rowe, Rachel Atkins, Hugh Ross, Nick Boulton, Stephen Critchlow.
Three Sisters
After the death of their father, his three daughters find it very hard to live in a drab Russian provincial town. The presence of a company of army officers is the only thing that makes their existence bearable, though inevitable drama, competition and failure lead to confusion and pain, as life doesn't turn out quite to plan for the sisters.
Full cast: Samatha Bond, Freddie Fox, Katherine Kingsley, Alison Pettitt, Catrin Stewart, Clare Corbett, Nick Boulton, Stephen Critchlow, Anthony Howell, Richard Reed, Hugh Ross, John Rowe.
The Cherry Orchard
In Chekhov's last play, a widowed landowner returns home more or less insolvent after five years abroad. Everything appears just as she remembers it, but hers is a diminishing world. The vast and beautiful cherry orchard is soon to be sold off against her mounting debts. The insistent warnings of a peasant's son turned wealthy businessman go unheeded, and more than the family estate is sacrificed.
Full cast: Samatha Bond, Freddie Fox, Hugh Ross, Georgie Grier, Clare Corbett, Richard Reed, Stephen Critchlow, Katherine Kingsley, Nick Boulton, Anthony Howell, Alison Pettitt, John Rowe.
A celebrated playwright, Anton Chekhov is often recognised as an influential figure of early modernism of the theatre in addition to being held in high esteem by the likes of George Bernard Shaw and Virginia Woolf, although much praise was not as forthcoming until after his death in 1904.
This collection features three plays. Dark comedy The Seagull, is the first of what are considered his 'major plays'. Three Sisters tells the story of a trio of sisters lonely after their father dies and The Cherry Orchard has a dual comedy and tragedy narrative.
The Seagull
Written in 1895 and a master class in the art and power of subtext, The Seagull follows the romantic and artistic conflicts between its four main characters, all dissatisfied with life. Some desire love. Some desire success. Some desire artistic genius. No one seems able to attain happiness.
Tragic and often darkly comic, The Seagull is a timeless classic and an early exercise in addressing the pitfalls of depression and lack of satisfaction in life and purpose.
Full cast: Samantha Bond, Catrin Stewart, Freddie Fox, Anthony Howell, Katherine Kingsley, John Rowe, Rachel Atkins, Hugh Ross, Nick Boulton, Stephen Critchlow.
Three Sisters
After the death of their father, his three daughters find it very hard to live in a drab Russian provincial town. The presence of a company of army officers is the only thing that makes their existence bearable, though inevitable drama, competition and failure lead to confusion and pain, as life doesn't turn out quite to plan for the sisters.
Full cast: Samatha Bond, Freddie Fox, Katherine Kingsley, Alison Pettitt, Catrin Stewart, Clare Corbett, Nick Boulton, Stephen Critchlow, Anthony Howell, Richard Reed, Hugh Ross, John Rowe.
The Cherry Orchard
In Chekhov's last play, a widowed landowner returns home more or less insolvent after five years abroad. Everything appears just as she remembers it, but hers is a diminishing world. The vast and beautiful cherry orchard is soon to be sold off against her mounting debts. The insistent warnings of a peasant's son turned wealthy businessman go unheeded, and more than the family estate is sacrificed.
Full cast: Samatha Bond, Freddie Fox, Hugh Ross, Georgie Grier, Clare Corbett, Richard Reed, Stephen Critchlow, Katherine Kingsley, Nick Boulton, Anthony Howell, Alison Pettitt, John Rowe.
Audible Audio
Published May 2, 2018
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About the author
Anton Chekhov
6,001 books9,830 followers
Antón Chéjov
(Spanish)
Dramas, such as The Seagull (1896, revised 1898), and including "A Dreary Story" (1889) of Russian writer Anton Pavlovich Chekhov, also Chekov, concern the inability of humans to communicate.
Born ( Антон Павлович Чехов ) in the small southern seaport of Taganrog, the son of a grocer. His grandfather, a serf, bought his own freedom and that of his three sons in 1841. He also taught to read. A cloth merchant fathered Yevgenia Morozova, his mother.
"When I think back on my childhood," Chekhov recalled, "it all seems quite gloomy to me." Tyranny of his father, religious fanaticism, and long nights in the store, open from five in the morning till midnight, shadowed his early years. He attended a school for Greek boys in Taganrog from 1867 to 1868 and then Taganrog grammar school. Bankruptcy of his father compelled the family to move to Moscow. At the age of 16 years in 1876, independent Chekhov for some time alone in his native town supported through private tutoring.
In 1879, Chekhov left grammar school and entered the university medical school at Moscow. In the school, he began to publish hundreds of short comics to support his mother, sisters and brothers. Nicholas Leikin published him at this period and owned Oskolki (splinters), the journal of Saint Petersburg. His subjected silly social situations, marital problems, and farcical encounters among husbands, wives, mistresses, and lust; even after his marriage, Chekhov, the shy author, knew not much of whims of young women.
Nenunzhaya pobeda , first novel of Chekhov, set in 1882 in Hungary, parodied the novels of the popular Mór Jókai. People also mocked ideological optimism of Jókai as a politician.
Chekhov graduated in 1884 and practiced medicine. He worked from 1885 in Peterburskaia gazeta.
In 1886, Chekhov met H.S. Suvorin, who invited him, a regular contributor, to work for Novoe vremya, the daily paper of Saint Petersburg. He gained a wide fame before 1886. He authored The Shooting Party , his second full-length novel, later translated into English. Agatha Christie used its characters and atmosphere in later her mystery novel The Murder of Roger Ackroyd . First book of Chekhov in 1886 succeeded, and he gradually committed full time. The refusal of the author to join the ranks of social critics arose the wrath of liberal and radical intelligentsia, who criticized him for dealing with serious social and moral questions but avoiding giving answers. Such leaders as Leo Tolstoy and Nikolai Leskov, however, defended him. "I'm not a liberal, or a conservative, or a gradualist, or a monk, or an indifferentist. I should like to be a free artist and that's all..." Chekhov said in 1888.
The failure of The Wood Demon , play in 1889, and problems with novel made Chekhov to withdraw from literature for a period. In 1890, he traveled across Siberia to Sakhalin, remote prison island. He conducted a detailed census of ten thousand convicts and settlers, condemned to live on that harsh island. Chekhov expected to use the results of his research for his doctoral dissertation. Hard conditions on the island probably also weakened his own physical condition. From this journey came his famous travel book.
Chekhov practiced medicine until 1892. During these years, Chechov developed his concept of the dispassionate, non-judgmental author. He outlined his program in a letter to his brother Aleksandr: "1. Absence of lengthy verbiage of political-social-economic nature; 2. total objectivity; 3. truthful descriptions of persons and objects; 4. extreme brevity; 5. audacity and originality; flee the stereotype; 6. compassion." Because he objected that the paper conducted against [a:Alfred Dreyfu
Dramas, such as The Seagull (1896, revised 1898), and including "A Dreary Story" (1889) of Russian writer Anton Pavlovich Chekhov, also Chekov, concern the inability of humans to communicate.
Born ( Антон Павлович Чехов ) in the small southern seaport of Taganrog, the son of a grocer. His grandfather, a serf, bought his own freedom and that of his three sons in 1841. He also taught to read. A cloth merchant fathered Yevgenia Morozova, his mother.
"When I think back on my childhood," Chekhov recalled, "it all seems quite gloomy to me." Tyranny of his father, religious fanaticism, and long nights in the store, open from five in the morning till midnight, shadowed his early years. He attended a school for Greek boys in Taganrog from 1867 to 1868 and then Taganrog grammar school. Bankruptcy of his father compelled the family to move to Moscow. At the age of 16 years in 1876, independent Chekhov for some time alone in his native town supported through private tutoring.
In 1879, Chekhov left grammar school and entered the university medical school at Moscow. In the school, he began to publish hundreds of short comics to support his mother, sisters and brothers. Nicholas Leikin published him at this period and owned Oskolki (splinters), the journal of Saint Petersburg. His subjected silly social situations, marital problems, and farcical encounters among husbands, wives, mistresses, and lust; even after his marriage, Chekhov, the shy author, knew not much of whims of young women.
Nenunzhaya pobeda , first novel of Chekhov, set in 1882 in Hungary, parodied the novels of the popular Mór Jókai. People also mocked ideological optimism of Jókai as a politician.
Chekhov graduated in 1884 and practiced medicine. He worked from 1885 in Peterburskaia gazeta.
In 1886, Chekhov met H.S. Suvorin, who invited him, a regular contributor, to work for Novoe vremya, the daily paper of Saint Petersburg. He gained a wide fame before 1886. He authored The Shooting Party , his second full-length novel, later translated into English. Agatha Christie used its characters and atmosphere in later her mystery novel The Murder of Roger Ackroyd . First book of Chekhov in 1886 succeeded, and he gradually committed full time. The refusal of the author to join the ranks of social critics arose the wrath of liberal and radical intelligentsia, who criticized him for dealing with serious social and moral questions but avoiding giving answers. Such leaders as Leo Tolstoy and Nikolai Leskov, however, defended him. "I'm not a liberal, or a conservative, or a gradualist, or a monk, or an indifferentist. I should like to be a free artist and that's all..." Chekhov said in 1888.
The failure of The Wood Demon , play in 1889, and problems with novel made Chekhov to withdraw from literature for a period. In 1890, he traveled across Siberia to Sakhalin, remote prison island. He conducted a detailed census of ten thousand convicts and settlers, condemned to live on that harsh island. Chekhov expected to use the results of his research for his doctoral dissertation. Hard conditions on the island probably also weakened his own physical condition. From this journey came his famous travel book.
Chekhov practiced medicine until 1892. During these years, Chechov developed his concept of the dispassionate, non-judgmental author. He outlined his program in a letter to his brother Aleksandr: "1. Absence of lengthy verbiage of political-social-economic nature; 2. total objectivity; 3. truthful descriptions of persons and objects; 4. extreme brevity; 5. audacity and originality; flee the stereotype; 6. compassion." Because he objected that the paper conducted against [a:Alfred Dreyfu
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
January 1, 2022
- Τι ατμόσφαιρα...
Προεπαναστατική Ρωσία. Η πτώση της άρχουσας τάξης. Παθιασμένοι έρωτες. Φουστάνια μεσάτα, βαθιά ντεκολτέ. Βελούδινα μακριά υφάσματα...
- Τι στο διάολο, μωρή, εικονογραφημένο το διάβασες το έργο;
Κι όμως η Ειρήνη Χαρίτου δεν έχει και τόσο άδικο. Ίσως γιατί ο Chekhov με την πένα του ήταν ικανός να ζωντανέψει τους διαλόγους, να δώσει χρώμα στο γκρίζο και πνοή στα νεκρά φύλλα. Βαθύτατα ανθρώπινος, γεμάτος κατανόηση και ευαισθησία απέναντι στο κτήνος που λέγεται άνθρωπος.
Σ' αυτή την έκδοση, συναντάμε τρία από τα αριστουργήματα του παγκόσμιου θεατρικού ρεπερτορίου, το Γλάρο, τις Τρεις αδελφές και το Βυσσινόκηπο με πολύ επιμελημένη παραγωγή από την Audible.
Αξίζει το χρόνο σας.
Προεπαναστατική Ρωσία. Η πτώση της άρχουσας τάξης. Παθιασμένοι έρωτες. Φουστάνια μεσάτα, βαθιά ντεκολτέ. Βελούδινα μακριά υφάσματα...
- Τι στο διάολο, μωρή, εικονογραφημένο το διάβασες το έργο;
Κι όμως η Ειρήνη Χαρίτου δεν έχει και τόσο άδικο. Ίσως γιατί ο Chekhov με την πένα του ήταν ικανός να ζωντανέψει τους διαλόγους, να δώσει χρώμα στο γκρίζο και πνοή στα νεκρά φύλλα. Βαθύτατα ανθρώπινος, γεμάτος κατανόηση και ευαισθησία απέναντι στο κτήνος που λέγεται άνθρωπος.
Σ' αυτή την έκδοση, συναντάμε τρία από τα αριστουργήματα του παγκόσμιου θεατρικού ρεπερτορίου, το Γλάρο, τις Τρεις αδελφές και το Βυσσινόκηπο με πολύ επιμελημένη παραγωγή από την Audible.
Αξίζει το χρόνο σας.
December 10, 2019
The Seagull
I haven’t read any Chekhov before. Audible offers three of his plays for free so I thought I would give him a try. Plays are always better seen or heard. The biggest drawback of the Audible production was it sounded as if the actors were breathless too often. It was a bit distracting. I couldn’t tell if they were supposed to be walking or just passionate at that moment. The story itself was better than expected. It was hard to follow at first but by act 3, it made sense. Act 4 was the best, had the best lines. I think it was about how we plan on having these fulfilling lives but only come to realise that we've wasted them in the end. If I were still young, I don’t think I could have appreciated this. As I am now middle aged, the themes resonate more clearly. Youth allows the pretence that our lives have meaning in the grand scheme of things. Old age makes hollow those pretences. As for the Seagull itself, it is a homeless vagabond, traveling through life having no permanent place of its own only to be killed just for the sake of it. Take what you can from that.
Three Sisters
What a depressing story. It is about three sisters and their brother. The eldest sister works, but wishes she had had a chance to marry. The middle sister is married but hates the fact that she can’t work and the youngest sister wants so much from life, but ends up disappointed. The brother wastes his life because he cannot be what they want him to be, but is restrained by his station. Everyone reaches a point, a sort of mid life crisis, where they realise that life will never give them what they had hoped for. There were some good quotes, but frankly, the play was depressing.
“I often think, what if one were to begin life over again, knowing what one is about! If one life, which has been already lived, were only a rough sketch so to speak, and the second were the fair copy! Then, I fancy, every one of us would feel compelled not to repeat himself, at the very least to rearrange his manner of life.”
“After us they'll fly in hot air balloons, coat styles will change, perhaps they'll discover a sixth sense and cultivate it, but life will remain the same, a hard life full of secrets, but happy. And a thousand years from now man will still be sighing, "Oh! Life is so hard!" and will still, like now, be afraid of death and not want to die.”
The Cherry Orchard
This play was a bit different from the others in that it was less about “depressing” themes and more about nostalgia. Madame Ranyevskaya and her family had once been wealthy and at the core of their estate is a large cherry orchard. Their wealth is now gone and the estate is due to be auctioned off to pay the bills. Lopakhin, a neighbour of the family, proposes a way to save the estate by cutting down the orchard and building holiday homes. The family are horrified by this idea. Lopakhin doesn’t understand why, because if they don’t follow his plan, they will lose it all anyway.
To Soviet Russians, Lopakhin was a bit of a hero, the son of peasants, he's done well for himself. He sees a way of making the estate available for all. But he cannot, will not empathise with the family. The cherry orchard meant so much to them. It was full of so many happy memories. To cut it down for holiday homes would be like defacing a beautiful painting to earn money. They will eat because they have the money but what will they have lost? They would rather starve, loose everything, than be responsible for defacing that precious orchard. Pragmatists cannot understand that.
I can understand why Lopakhin was upset. His idea was a good idea, if only the orchard meant nothing to them. That is what he couldn’t understand. The family deserve their fate but I understand why they were so set in their ways. There were other subplots to the story, probably the more well-rounded play of the three. I can understand why it’s a classic.
I haven’t read any Chekhov before. Audible offers three of his plays for free so I thought I would give him a try. Plays are always better seen or heard. The biggest drawback of the Audible production was it sounded as if the actors were breathless too often. It was a bit distracting. I couldn’t tell if they were supposed to be walking or just passionate at that moment. The story itself was better than expected. It was hard to follow at first but by act 3, it made sense. Act 4 was the best, had the best lines. I think it was about how we plan on having these fulfilling lives but only come to realise that we've wasted them in the end. If I were still young, I don’t think I could have appreciated this. As I am now middle aged, the themes resonate more clearly. Youth allows the pretence that our lives have meaning in the grand scheme of things. Old age makes hollow those pretences. As for the Seagull itself, it is a homeless vagabond, traveling through life having no permanent place of its own only to be killed just for the sake of it. Take what you can from that.
Three Sisters
What a depressing story. It is about three sisters and their brother. The eldest sister works, but wishes she had had a chance to marry. The middle sister is married but hates the fact that she can’t work and the youngest sister wants so much from life, but ends up disappointed. The brother wastes his life because he cannot be what they want him to be, but is restrained by his station. Everyone reaches a point, a sort of mid life crisis, where they realise that life will never give them what they had hoped for. There were some good quotes, but frankly, the play was depressing.
“I often think, what if one were to begin life over again, knowing what one is about! If one life, which has been already lived, were only a rough sketch so to speak, and the second were the fair copy! Then, I fancy, every one of us would feel compelled not to repeat himself, at the very least to rearrange his manner of life.”
“After us they'll fly in hot air balloons, coat styles will change, perhaps they'll discover a sixth sense and cultivate it, but life will remain the same, a hard life full of secrets, but happy. And a thousand years from now man will still be sighing, "Oh! Life is so hard!" and will still, like now, be afraid of death and not want to die.”
The Cherry Orchard
This play was a bit different from the others in that it was less about “depressing” themes and more about nostalgia. Madame Ranyevskaya and her family had once been wealthy and at the core of their estate is a large cherry orchard. Their wealth is now gone and the estate is due to be auctioned off to pay the bills. Lopakhin, a neighbour of the family, proposes a way to save the estate by cutting down the orchard and building holiday homes. The family are horrified by this idea. Lopakhin doesn’t understand why, because if they don’t follow his plan, they will lose it all anyway.
To Soviet Russians, Lopakhin was a bit of a hero, the son of peasants, he's done well for himself. He sees a way of making the estate available for all. But he cannot, will not empathise with the family. The cherry orchard meant so much to them. It was full of so many happy memories. To cut it down for holiday homes would be like defacing a beautiful painting to earn money. They will eat because they have the money but what will they have lost? They would rather starve, loose everything, than be responsible for defacing that precious orchard. Pragmatists cannot understand that.
I can understand why Lopakhin was upset. His idea was a good idea, if only the orchard meant nothing to them. That is what he couldn’t understand. The family deserve their fate but I understand why they were so set in their ways. There were other subplots to the story, probably the more well-rounded play of the three. I can understand why it’s a classic.
March 13, 2019
Very hard to read. I've listened to audio book, and it didn't help.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews