The Major Plays

Anton Chekhov<br>The Major Plays<br><br>Ivanov * The Sea Gull * Uncle Vanya * The Three Sisters * The Cherry Orchard<br><br>&#147;Let the things that happen onstage be just as complex and yet just as simple as they are in life&#148; Chekhov once declared. &#147;For instance people are having a meal just having a meal but at the same time their happiness is being created or their lives are being smashed up.&#148; So it is that his plays express life through subtle construction everyday dialogue and an electrically charged atmosphere in which even the most casual words and actions assume great importance in his characters&#146; lives. This principle sets his plays apart from the rest steering them clear of melodrama and draws the audience into the lives of Chekhov&#146;s colorful characters. Because of his adherence to realism the playwright has been called an &#147;incomparable artist of life.&#148;*<br><br>&#147;What makes his work great is that it can be felt and understood not only by any Russian but by anybody in the world.&#148;&#151;*Leo Tolstoy<br><br>With a Foreword by Robert Brustein&#160;and an Afterword by Rosamund Bartlett