Letters of Anton Chekhov (Tchekhov) - Penn State University

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Letters of Anton Chekhov to His Family and Friends with biographical sketchMOSCOW, October 22, 1901.Five days have passed since I read your play (“The Petty Bourgeois”).I have not written to you till now because I could not gethold of the fourth act; I have kept waiting for it, and—I still havenot got it. And so I have only read three acts, but that I think isenough to judge of the play. It is, as I expected, very good, written ala Gorky, original, very interesting; and, to begin by talking of thedefects, I have noticed only one, a defect incorrigible as red hair ina red-haired man—the conservatism of the form. You make newand original people sing new songs to an accompaniment that lookssecond-hand, you have four acts, the characters deliver edifying discourses,there is a feeling of alarm before long speeches, and so on,and so on. But all that is not important, and it is all, so to speak,drowned in the good points of the play. Pertchihin—how living!His daughter is enchanting, Tatyana and Pyotr are also, and theirmother is a splendid old woman. The central figure of the play, Nil,is vigorously drawn and extremely interesting! In fact, the play takeshold of one from the first act. Only God preserve you from lettinganyone act Pertchihin except Artyom, while Alexeyev-Stanislavskymust certainly play Nil. Those two figures will do just what’s needed;Pyotr—Meierhold. Only Nil’s part, a wonderful part, must be madetwo or three times as long. You ought to end the play with it, tomake it the leading part. Only do not contrast him with Pyotr andTatyana, let him be by himself and them by themselves, all wonderful,splendid people independently of each other. When Nil tries toseem superior to Pyotr and Tatyana, and says of himself that he is afine fellow, the element so characteristic of our decent working man,the element of modesty, is lost. He boasts, he argues, but you knowone can see what sort of man he is without that. Let him be merry,let him play pranks through the whole four acts, let him eat a greatdeal after his work—and that will be enough for him to conquerthe audience with. Pyotr, I repeat, is good. Most likely you don’teven suspect how good he is. Tatyana, too, is a finished figure, only(a) she ought really to be a schoolmistress, ought to be teachingchildren, ought to come home from school, ought to be taken upwith her pupils and exercise-books, and (b) it ought to be men-410
Anton Chekhovtioned in the first or second act that she has attempted to poisonherself; then, after that hint, the poisoning in the third act will notseem so startling and will be more in place. Telerev talks too much:such characters ought to be shown bit by bit between others, for inany case such people are everywhere merely incidental—both in lifeand on the stage. Make Elena dine with all the rest in the first act,let her sit and make jokes, or else there is very little of her, and she isnot clear. Her avowal to Pyotr is too abrupt, on the stage it wouldcome out in too high relief. Make her a passionate woman, if notloving at least apt to fall in love ….411
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Letters of Anton Chekhov (Tchekhov) - Penn State University

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