Chekhov - Shorts

"I don't much care for theatre," he wrote at the time, "but I do enjoy vaudevilles"

The Bear, The Proposal and The Wedding are all farces on the preposterous business of courtship and marriage

A Tragic Figure and Swansong are comic duologues - one about a civil servant sweltering in Moscow coping with the incessant demands of his family from their summer dacha, the other about a melancholy old actor perked up by memories of past glories

On the Evils of Tobacco is a bitter sweet monologue in which a scientific lecture is hijacked by thoughts of domestic misery

These accurate and highly actable translations by Chekhov expert Stephen Mulrine reveal a dramatist revelling in the broad comedy of human behaviour, a comedy which was refined in his later masterpieces

Highly entertaining, these comic shorts offer a fascinating insight into Chekhov's development as a dramatist, and will provide actors at any level student, amateur or professional with an ideal showcase