Letters of Anton Chekhov (Tchekhov) - Penn State University

Anton ChekhovTO HIS BROTHER ALEXANDR.MOSCOW, November 20, 1887.Well, the first performance* is over. I will tell you all about it indetail. To begin with, Korsh promised me ten rehearsals, but gaveme only four, of which only two could be called rehearsals, for theother two were tournaments in which messieurs les artistes exercisedthemselves in altercation and abuse. Davydov and Glama were theonly two who knew their parts; the others trusted to the prompterand their own inner conviction.Act One.—I am behind the stage in a small box that looks like aprison cell. My family is in a box of the benoire and is trembling.Contrary to my expectations, I am cool and am conscious of noagitation. The actors are nervous and excited, and cross themselves.The curtain goes up ... the actor whose benefit night it is comes on.His uncertainty, the way that he forgets his part, and the wreaththat is presented to him make the play unrecognizable to me fromthe first sentences. Kiselevsky, of whom I had great hopes, did notdeliver a single phrase correctly—literally not a single one. He saidthings of his own composition. In spite of this and of the stagemanager’s blunders, the first act was a great success. There weremany calls.Act Two.—A lot of people on the stage. Visitors. They don’t knowtheir parts, make mistakes, talk nonsense. Every word cuts me like aknife in my back. But—o Muse!—this act, too, was a success. Therewere calls for all the actors, and I was called before the curtain twice.Congratulations and success.Act Three.—The acting is not bad. Enormous success. I had tocome before the curtain three times, and as I did so Davydov wasshaking my hand, and Glama, like Manilov, was pressing my otherhand to her heart. The triumph of talent and virtue.Act Four, Scene One.—It does not go badly. Calls before the curtainagain. Then a long, wearisome interval. The audience, not usedto leaving their seats and going to the refreshment bar between two*Translator’s Note: “Ivanov.”65