Word: chekhovisms
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...Harvard Theatre Group will present plays by Shaw and Chekhov on April 10, 11, and 12. These presentations represent the second in its series of workshop productions...
...tragedy of wasted lives is Chekhov's all-embracing idea. The unbearable pressures of a decadent society and man's inability to face them, a world peopled with figures who can not understand themselves or each other--these are the themes from which emerge the writer's major works. Chekhov's later plays show some optimism, but when he wrote Ivanov, he was still the struggling young writer who felt himself up against insurmountable odds. Hence the complete pessimism of this play...
...Chekhov's characters "the world is black and white." They themselves are all gray, but they cannot accept their own grayness. One of the most vivid figures is young Dr. Lvov, portrayed by Bryant Haliday, whose well-controlled rigidity conveys an intense honesty based on blind judgement...
...Chekhov's characters, because of the conflicts in their personalities, are difficult to portray and the people in Ivanov are not so finely drawn as the author's later creations. But for the most part the Brattle cast surmounted the weaknesses in their roles. Cavada Humphrey made a sensitive and pitiful Anna, while Jan Farrand was convincingly naive and noble as the other woman in Ivanov's life. Jerry Kilty and Earl Montgomery turned in fine performances considering the complexity of their roles as washed-out old men. But John Beal, the imported leading man, lacked inspiration. The part...
Admittedly this is not Chekhov's masterpiece, but the Brattle has given Ivanov about as interesting and meaningful a treatment as it could command. The show is worth seeing, both for the points of fine theatre that are brought out and for the unusual opportunity it offers to see the groundwork in the development of a great playwright...