Customer Reviews

Seven Short Farces by Anton Chekhov - Acting Edition

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Let's face it, Chekhov is odd. But this compilation gathers his 7 most famous farces together in one book. Each play is a gem in its own right.

A must-have for up-and-coming actors or directors, or veterans who don't already own this.

Anton Chekhov's 7 Short Farces, is a book of seven Russian plays. The first play (The Bear) is his most famous of the plays in this book. It is an entertaining story of a man collecting debts to pay his mortgage. He travels all around, but nobody can or is willing to pay their debts. So at the last house owned by a recently widowed lady refuses to pay they argue and it breaks into chaos. The rest of the plays follow this pattern. They start of with a normal somewhat comical situation that ends up in utter chaos than just ends. Most of the plays have something to do with irony. I think that Chekhov wrote these as a symbol of the Russian government at this time. Its supposed to show how chaotic and ironic Russia's politics are. After the third play this book becomes somewhat tidies. I think it would be more interesting if these were acted like they were intended to be. Individually the plays are interesting, but when read one after another they are boring. Overall I would not suggest these plays to be read but I would suggest them to be acted for a better understanding of Russian literature.