Three Sisters

History

The Voice of an Era: Chekhov the Marxist and Socialist

Activity

About the Playwright

Anton Chekhov was born on 19th January 1860 in Taganrog, Russia and what would become in 1917 the Russian Socialist Federated Soviet Republic after a lengthy and turbulent period of unrest. He came from unpretentious beginnings and was the son of a humble clerk. His grandfather had been a serf but had laboriously bought the freedom of his entire family in 1841; twenty years before the abolition of serfdom and seventy years before the Russian Revolution.
Chekhov studied medicine and in 1884 when he passed his final exams he was posted to Zvenigord. Here, he practiced medicine and attended court proceedings as a medical expert. These duties exposed the young doctor to the in and outs of the rural lives of country folk. Not far from Zvenigord was the town of Voskressenk. Here, Chekhov kept company with army personnel and he fostered lifelong friendships with several of the officers. Many literary critics believe that Chekhov drew material from the time he spent at Zvenigord and Voskressenk for The Three Sisters. In fact, Chekhov would revisit these times over and over in his writings, journals and plays for the rest of his life.
Chekhov's plays expose the ideologies harboured by the bourgeoisie prior to the Revolution. Chekhov delighted in exposing the inadequacies of the middle classes in his plays as can be seen in The Three Sisters and also The Cherry Orchard, Chekhov's most eminent play. Chekhov wraps his characters in barbed wire rather than cotton wool and often portrays them as parasites sitting around making grandiose plans that never eventuate.
Early in his life, Chekhov contracted tuberculosis which prematurely claimed his life on 2nd July 1904 at the age of forty-four. Six months later, in early January 1905 on a day not unlike any other day, Tsarist troops opened fire on a peaceful demonstration of workers in St Petersburg and would change the course of world history forever.
Anton Chekhov is universally recognised as one of the greatest literary writers of our time. Unfailingly, he practiced medicine and simultaneously wrote thought provoking plays that exposed genuine concern for the social issues and struggles of his beloved Russian Republic.

The Voice of an Era: Chekhov the Marxist and Socialist

Historically, societies that oppress people disintegrate. The lower classes rise above their oppressors and attack with a united and mighty force that result in social and political upheaval. These changes trickle down through the many layers of society and create both intellectual and cultural change. These advancements are referred to as revolutionary because they question the preconceived ideas held by a society and they transform the course of history as they open the door to a whole new world of possibilities.
Although, Chekhov did not consider himself a revolutionary, it is difficult not to find political meanings and references woven throughout his texts. He was, at heart, a Marxist and aligned himself with the theoretical convictions outlined in The Communist Manifesto written by Karl Marx in 1948. Marxism, at the turn of last century, was intertwined with socialism, communism and Bolshevikism. Marxism determined that capitalism or the ownership of wealth and property by the upper classes was unethical because it was the mass working classes that did the work that generated the money for the bourgeoisie. Marx perceived capitalism as a system that would destroy Russia because it did not allow for individual gain or creative input into society. The rich got richer and the poor got poorer. Anton Chekhov wrote many plays around the inability of the upper classes to foster economic or resourceful growth in Russia for the masses.

Activity

Oppressed Furniture

Take four chairs, a table and a small object (such as a cup) and put them on stage. Ask the students to consider the cup as the oppressed and the other objects as forces around the cup. The object of this game is to design a picture, using the furniture, which shows the cup at the most oppressive state possible (without physical harm).

The Stage of Anton Chekhov

By the end of the 19th century science and technology had infiltrated the lives of ordinary people. Edison had discovered the electric light. Sigmund Freud had uncovered the unconscious mind and Charles Darwin had challenged the creation myth in his Theory of Evolution. The 19th century saw the advent of photography and the catchphrase ‘a slice of life' was born and would become synonymous with the theatrical style known as Realism These technologies revolutionised the theatre. Stages that had been lit with gas were now lit with the electric light. Chekhov, drew on Freud's theories to expose the workings of the human mind and his characters took on a three dimensionality unseen on stages before. And it is, at this point in history, that the proscenium arch begins to frame the stage and capture that moment in time. Actors, their lives and their environment become ‘a slice of life', similar to a photograph. These technologies not only changed theatre but revolutionised people lives, allowing unprecedented freedom to explore themselves and their world.

Activity

Slice of Life

Ask the students to get into small groups (3-4) and ask them to present a recent happening in their life as accurately and realistically as possible. Ask the audience to reflect on how real they thought the scene was and then discuss how exciting it was. Could anything be changed to make it more real? Was there anything performative about their scene?