Chekhov on the British Stage

by Edited by Patrick Miles

• ISBN13: 9780521384674
• ISBN10: 0521384672
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1993-06-25
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

This is the first book to consider the whole subject of Chekhov's impact on the British stage. Recently Chekhov's plays have come to occupy a place in the British classical repertoire second only to Shakespeare. The British, American and Russian authors of these essays examine this phenomenon both historically and synchronically. First they discuss why Chekhov's plays were so slow to find an audience in Britain, what the early productions were really like, and how Bernard Shaw, Peggy Ashcroft, the Moscow Art Theatre and politics influenced the British style of Chekhov. They then address the often controversial issues of directing, acting, designing and translating Chekhov in Britain today. The volume concludes with a selective chronology of British productions of Chekhov's plays and will be of interest to students and scholars of the theatre, as well as theatre-goers, theatre-practitioners and Russianists.

Table of Contents

List of illustrations

List of contributors

Note on style and abbreviations

1. Introduction

2. Chekhov on the British stage: differences

3. The 'inevitability' of Chekhov: Anglo-Russian theatrical contacts in the 1910s

4. Chekhov, naturalism and the drama of dissent: productions of Chekhov's plays in Britain before 1914

5. Bernard Shaw's dialogue with Chekhov

6. Coping with the outlandish: the English response to Chekhov's plays 1911-1926

7. Komisarjevsky's 1926 Three Sisters

8. Peggy Ashcroft and Chekhov: 9. Far from the West End: Chekhov and the Welsh language stage 1924-1991

10. Chekhov re-viewed: the Moscow Art Theatre's visits to Britain in 1958, 1964 and 1970

11. A path to Chekhov

12. Subsequent performances: Chekhov: 13. The 'dwindling scale': the politics of British Chekhov

14. The Cherry Orchard: a new English version by Trevor Griffiths

15. Changes of direction: Mike Alfred's methods with Chekhov

16. Chekhov and the company problem in the British theatre

17. Design for Chekhov

18. My search for standards as a translator of Chekhov's plays

19. Chekhov into English: the case of The Seagull

20. English translations of Chekhov's plays: a Russian view

21. Appendix: A chronology of British professional productions of Chekhov's plays 1909-1991

Index.