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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 July 2009
Almost all of the major characters in Chekhov's plays are ambiguous; their interpretation poses no small task for directors and actors. The figure of Nina Zarechnaya in The Seagull, in particular, has been construed in many ways. She has been seen as a soaring seagull; a tumbled, tousled bird; a talentless country girl; an emerging artist of promise; a high-reaching neurotic wreck; a future actress of Arkadina's vein; and so on. Because of this interpretive ambiguity, Chekhov was often asked to clarify his position on one or another of his characters. In written form he did so explicitly only once, in a letter to Suvorin in connection with his Ivanov performance in St. Petersburg. In this letter and others as well, it is clear that Chekhov's principle was “better to blur the portrait than overdo it.” The recollections of Stanislavsky, Nemirovich-Danchenko, and many actors of the Moscow Art Theatre indicate, moreover, that most of the time Chekhov confined himself mainly to seemingly insignificant remarks if asked about a role. Stanislavsky remembers, for example, that when, after a rehearsal, he asked Chekhov to critique his portrayal of Trigorin, Chekhov said, “Wonderful! Listen, it was wonderful! Only you need torn shoes and checked trousers.” After these sorts of typically oblique remarks directors and actors were puzzled and would long ponder the hidden meaning of the playwright's comments. The famous actor of many Chekhov plays, V.I. Kachalov, also wrote in his memoirs about Chekhov's unwillingness to influence the actor straightforwardly.
1 Letter to Suvorin, A., December 30, 1888, in The Selected Letters of Anton Chekhov, ed. Hellman, Lillian (New York: Farrar, Strauss & Co., 1955), p. 74Google Scholar. All quotations from sources unavailable in English were translated by the author.
2 Stanislavsky, C., My Life in Art (New York, 1924), p. 358Google Scholar.
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4 Efros, N. Ye., “Chaika A.P. Chekhova na stsene Moskovskogo Khudozhestvennogo Teatra,” Yezhegodnik MKHAT 1944 (Moscow, 1946), p. 273Google Scholar.
5 Letter to A. Koni, November 11, 1896, in Hellman, p. 197.
6 Ibid., p. 197.
7 Letter to E.M. Shavrova, November 1, 1896, in Hellman, pp. 195–196.
8 This correspondence is described by Sobolev, Yu., “Chekhov i Komissarzhevskaya” in: A.P. Chekhov i nash krai (Rostov-na-Donu, 1935), pp. 60–72Google Scholar.
9 Efros, p. 274.
10 Letter to Knipper, O.L., February 17, 1903, in Sobranie Sochinenii, 12 vols. (Moscow, 1964), XII, 482Google Scholar.
11 Chitau-Karmina, M., “Premiera Chaiki,” Zveno, 201 (1926), 8–9Google Scholar. More detail appears in Efros as well as Karlinsky, S., Anton Chekhov's Life and Thought (Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 1975)Google Scholar.
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13 Ibid., p. 9.
14 Karlinsky, p. 283.
15 Brustein, A., Stranitsy proshlogo (Moscow, 1952), pp. 42–64Google Scholar.
16 Chekhov, A.P., Polnoe sobranie sochinenii i pisem, 30 vols. (Moscow, 1974–), VII, 338Google Scholar.
17 Ibid., VII, 668, 688, 700.
18 Letter to M. Gorky, May 9, 1899, in Hellman, p. 242.
19 Stroeva, M., Chekhov i Khudozhestvenny Teatr (Moscow, 1955), pp. 12–56Google Scholar.
20 Efros' article is reprinted in Sobolev, Yu., Chekhov; statyi, materialy, bibliografiya (Moscow, 1930), p. 188Google Scholar.
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22 Nemirovitch-Dantchenko, V., My Life in the Russian Theatre (London, 1968), p. 192Google Scholar.
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24 Letter to P.F. Yordanov, May 15, 1899, in Chekhov, VIII, 179.
