Chekhov on the British Stage

Cambridge University Press
Edition: Illustrated, 5/6/1993
EAN 9780521384674, ISBN10: 0521384672

Hardcover, 272 pages, 22.9 x 15.2 x 1.9 cm
Language: English

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.

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.