Word: chekhovs
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There is no such thing, alas, as a new play by Anton Chekhov, and certainly not one written in English rather than his native Russian. But Adapter Michael Frayn has achieved the satisfying illusion of one in Wild Honey, a dizzyingly funny romantic farce culled from Chekhov's untitled, and by most estimates unproducible, first extant play. Frayn is best known in the U.S. as the playwright of Noises Off, a slapstick send-up of British sex comedy, and Benefactors, a regretful recollection of the relations between two young professional couples. Wild Honey marries the wry and the rowdy strains...
...When Chekhov, then 21, finished the play, he brought it to an actress. After the play was rejected, perhaps because its diffuse narrative would take six to seven hours to stage, he destroyed his manuscript. Another copy, found after his death, has given rise to several adaptations. Frayn's, which lasts 2 1/2 hours, shifts the focus from the leading lady to a man, the schoolteacher Platonov, and provides a wondrous star turn for Ian McKellen, who won a 1981 Tony Award for his portrayal of Salieri in Amadeus...
...CHEKHOV, Henri Troyat -- GOING SOLO, Roald Dahl -- MY FATHER, MY SON, Admiral Elmo Zumwalt Jr. and Lieut. Elmo Zumwalt III -- THE PAPER, Richard Kluger...
There was more than figurative truth in the statement. Chekhov suffered a variety of chronic illnesses. Symptoms of tuberculosis appeared when he was graduated from medical school. The fatal disease surely contributed to his doleful outlook, though it does not appear to have affected his compassion. As Troyat suggests, while Chekhov's journey to a remote penal colony was motivated by sympathy, writing The Island of Sakhalin was not a labor of love. Yet the book riveted attention on the inhuman conditions at the Czar's gulag and eventually led to reforms...
...evidence, Chekhov was always discreet and gentlemanly in his affairs with women. Lydia Avilova, a persistent and hysterical pursuer, was tactfully kept at bay for years. When the playwright finally married, it was to Olga Knipper, one of Moscow's best-known actresses. Unfortunately, her career frequently kept her in the city, and his illness tied him to Yalta. He died at age 44, drinking champagne with Olga at his bedside. The death scene is cordon bleu Chekhov. A large black moth flutters into the room, and as the body of the famous man cools, the cork pops...