Word: chekhovisms
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...SELECTED LETTERS OF ANTON CHEKHOV (331 pp.)-Edited by Lillian Hellman-Farrar, Straus...
More than 60 plays in four languages can be had on records-Calderón to Christopher Fry, Congreve to Chekhov to Shakespeare. A few of the recorded productions, e.g., Yeats's The Only Jealousy of Emer (Esoteric; $4.98), live beneath the needle as they never did under the lights...
...weak sisters, I much preferred the Chekhov piece. Director Martin Mintz seems to have paced the response too slowly, although much of the tedium through the middle of the play can be blamed on the author's excessive repetitiveness. John Fenn, as the psychosomatically ill suitor, was amusing, although he sometimes twitched about more embarrassingly than humorously. Dick Merlo heartily fulfilled the part of the father, but Laura Pincus, as Natalia, contributed little more than her presence on the stage. Nevertheless, Marriage Proposal was moderately successful as a brief entertainment...
...Leverett House Dramatic Club's production of "The Early plays of Three Well-known Dramatists" requires grotesque positions to prepare scenery for three weird one-act plays. "The Marriage Proposal" by Chekhov is a marriage proposal which isn't, at least not until the longing-to-be-bride's father twists the scene until the knot is tied. Tennessee Williams' "The Strangest Kind of Romance" finds a man fallen in love with a cat. Animals also appear in Noel Coward's "Weatherwise" as people take to barking and scratching, and the real dogs on the set eat rugs...
Stephen Aaron's direction is remarkable for two things. First that there are only the two mentioned major exceptions to the high level of interpretation and acting, and second that he usually shows enough faith in Chekhov's writing ability not to force laughs or pathos in places where the author did not obviously intend them. Aaron, of course, shares in the honor of the night. In mitigation of the poor scenery and lighting, by John Ratte and Jordan Jelks, respectively, the facilities at Peabody are miserable and The Seagull calls for complications in both lines. As already pointed...