Word: chekhovisms
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...success in London, where the cast-including Sir John Gielgud, Sir Ralph Richardson, Dame Sybil Thorndike and Irene Worth-was dazzling. On Broadway, where the cast is merely good, the play's chances seem slighter. A prettily draped Dorsetshire study of has-beens and never-weres, a Chekhov-flavored and slightly watery custard, A Day by the Sea is often nicely written, sometimes neatly observed. But it shows no very personal talent or original insight...
...Hobbes brings particular life to his part, and Dennis King is bright, if a little broad, as a bitter doctor. Most of the other characters are more brooding in their lostness, but they fumble and philosophize, care or cease to care, without much individuality. Had there never been a Chekhov, A Day by the Sea might provide a rather welcome breath of fresh-airlessness. As it is, the effect seems both too faint and too familiar...
Died. Michael Chekhov, 64, Russian-born stage and film actor, nephew of Author Anton Chekhov, member of the famed Moscow Art Theater (1913-28) under Stanislavsky, dramatic coach, longtime Hollywood character actor (Spellbound); of a heart attack; in Beverly Hills...
...concentrating on literal settings and social messages, Ibsen's and Chekhov's disciples have slighted theme, plot, character development and language-the things that gave the theater popular appeal-and have produced a theater suffering from "muscular atrophy" and conditioned by the idea that the playwright, and not his audience, knows what makes good drama. ("The playwright no longer has to die to reach Parnassus. He starts out there...
...feast of ham-and-egoism. "You are a fraud-a clever, charming, amusing fraud"; "You may be regarded ... as highly intelligent, yet your intelligence is curiously limited, sterile, and stunted"; "In many respects you are not a bad woman"; "You are a bit like a character out of a Chekhov play...