Chekhov: The Four Major Plays: Seagull, Uncle Vanya, Three Sisters, Cherry Orchard

More than a century since Chekhov's death, his artistic influence continues to be felt throughout literature and the theater, where many refer to him as the progenitor of modern drama. Why is it that as frequently as Chekhov's work is performed in the modern English-speaking theater, it is so often stuck in interpretations that are historically accurate but bereft of contemporary resonance and genuine passion? Why does his prose often sound stilted, precious, forced, and humorless? To anyone who has read him in the Russian, this is the furthest from a description of his language that anyone could imagine. In Russian, Chekhov is blunt, muscular, even coarse, simultaneously funny and sad because he is so uncomplicated. In these fresh, vibrant new translations of Chekhov's four greatest plays—Seagull, Uncle Vanya, Three Sisters, and Cherry Orchard—the brilliant theatrical translator Curt Columbus recaptures the master's open-ended simplicity, at once colloquial and accurate. He endows these timeless dramas with dialogue that is faithful to the Russian original but dazzlingly attuned to contemporary audiences. Here is Chekhov for the twenty-first century: a master playwright in the hands of a master translator.