A Methuen Student Edition of Chekhov's classic play in Michael Frayn's acclaimed translation 'The play has been flooded with light, like a room with the curtains drawn back' John Peter, Sunday Times 'The direct simplicity of this new translation ... uncovers not only the nerve endings of Chekhov's restless malcontents but also their comic absurdities. It is, as he always intended, actually funny ...' Jack Tinker, Daily Mail When it opened in St Petersburg in 1896, The Seagull survived only five performances after a disastrous first night. Two years later it was revived by Nemirovich-Danchenko at the newly-founded Moscow Art Theatre with Stanslasky as Trigorin and was an immediate success. Checkhov's description of the play was characteristically self-mocking: "A comedy - 3F, 6M, four acts, rural scenery (a view over a lake); much talk of literature, little action, five bushels of love". Michael Frayn's translation was commissioned by the Oxford Playhouse Company.

This volume includes The Seagull, a about the battle for power between a mother and her son which ends in tragedy; Uncle Vanya tells of two obsessive love affairs that lead nowhere, and a flirtation that brings disaster; Three Sisters in which three siblings wrestle with their futures and The Cherry Orchard where the old must inevitably give way to the new. Haunting and elusive, these four great late masterpieces have found in Michael Frayn a translator who perfectly captures their delicate balance of the tragic and the absurd. The volume also contains four of Chekhov's early short 'vaudevilles' as well as a substantial introduction by Michael Frayn. "The critical clamour for a Complete Chekhov in Michael Frayn's translation has borne fruit" (Sunday Times)

Twenty-two lesser-known short stories from Anton Chekhov (1860-1904), including The Horse-Stealers, Ward No. 6, and the Petchenyeg.

This superb play by Anton Chekhov presents drama and romance between an ensemble cast of vivid, evocative characters. We join Sorin, a retired government servant who lives on his estate with his wife who is a famed stage actress named Arkadina. Their son, Konstantin Treplyov, is a playwright who has recently published an unconventional work which has attracted much public attention. However, in spite of his artistic talents Konstantin is prone to troubles of mood. His habit of shooting seagulls influences the plot, and provides the play with its title. In keeping with his penchant for romantic flair, Chekhov establishes potential romances early in the story. Masha, the estate keeper's daughter, is taken by Konstantin but herself liked by a schoolteacher named Medvedenko. These romances in turn fuel the plot - as the reader is left guessing as to who will pair off with whom.

Chekhov's fame grows steadily with the years, and now for the first time his best work is made available in a single low priced volume. The translation is by S.S. Koteliansky, whose English versions of The Cherry Orchard and The Seagull appear here for the first time. The Wood Demon, the earlier version of Uncle Vanya, is the third of the full length plays in the book. A few shorter playlets are also included, and Tchekhov's mastery of the art of the short story is shown by a selection of thirteen of his best stories, including My Life, and The Lady with the Toy Dog.

While his restless wife watches, the chemist snores contentedly, smiling at his dream -- that the whole village has a cough and are buying his curative syrup!

Then she hears outside two shadowed figures, a doctor and an officer, talking between themselves . . . about the chemist with the oversized jaw of an ass, and his ever-so-contrasting, so-fetching wife! Then the doorbell rings. Soon the chemist's wife finds herself hosting a small midnight party, gazing upon their ruddy faces and listening to their chatter -- and soon she, too, grows quite lively. Oh, she feels so gay! The dead weight pressing her down on this heavy summer night lifts completely . . .

Chekhov's unerring insight into the turbulent emotions that stir men and women, in "The Chemist's Wife" and the others to be found within "The Duel and Other Stories," instills his gemlike fiction with a still-undiminished power.

A classic four-act romantic tragedy by Chekhov, Uncle Vanya premiered to excellent reviews in 1899. Aleksandr Vladimirovich Serebryakov is a former university professor, now retired in a rural estate. His daughter Sonya and her husband - the titular Vanya - manage his affairs. However all is not well in the Serebryakov household, with drama swift to follow the professor's announcement to sell his country estate. The result of this sudden revelation is scheming, romantic and otherwise, between the play's nine principle characters. The tensions crescendo as we see what Vanya and others may resort to as the security to which they were accustomed is imperilled, and difficulties thought consigned to the past shockingly resurfaces. Essentially a extensive rewrite of his play The Wood Demon, authored over a decade earlier, Uncle Vanya reflects the stylistic improvements which Chekhov learned in the intervening period.

"The Schoolmistress and Other Stories" contains twenty-one tales by Russian master of drama and the short story, Anton Chekhov. Among the stories is one of Chekhov's classics, "The Bet," in which a greedy banker makes an ill-considered bet regarding capital punishment with a young and impressionable guest. Fifteen years later -- the surprise ending provides one of Chekhov's most thought-provoking tales. The title story is a careful reminder of the soul-deadening life of a teacher in the Russian countryside -- for in Russia of Chekhov's day, education was less-valued than it is today, and teachers greatly underpaid and undervalued. Chekhov was of a different social background than more aristocratic Russian authors such as Tolstoy, Dostoevsky and Turgenev -- this offered him an insight into character that differed from theirs. A physician as well, Chekhov's observational skills are clear in this, as with all of his collections of short fiction. These stories will remind the reader of other 19th Century masters of short fiction, such as Maupassant. But their nature, and poetic irony, is exclusively that of Anton Chekhov.

"Chekhov, speaking simply and never otherwise than as an artist and a humane man, shows us in fullness and plenitude the mystery of our lives."-Eudora Welty "What writers influenced me as a young man? Chekhov! As a dramatist? Chekhov! As a story writer? Chekhov!"-Tennessee Williams The Seagull is Anton Chekhov's brilliant four-act play that is considered a monumental work of drama, and one of the most sublime literary examinations of the complexities of love and friendship. First performed over a century ago, this play remains one of the most widely staged productions throughout the world. The four protagonists in The Seagull are all artists; Trigorin is a well-established writer, Arkadina is a renowned yet aging actress, her son Treplev is a struggling writer, and Nina is a young aspiring actress who is in love with Treplev. Success in love and in their art is a shared intent, yet within the play each character experiences an existential crisis in the darkness of unrequited love. With its play-within-a-play, its nods to Shakespeare, and intimate and profound character portrayals, this is an essential read for all serious students of drama and Russian literature. With an eye-catching new cover, and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of The Seagull is both modern and readable.

We need the theatre, couldn’t, couldn’t do without it. Could we? A successful actress visits her brother’s isolated estate far from the city, throwing the frustrated residents unfulfilled ambitions into sharp relief. As her son attempts to impress with a self-penned play, putting much more than his pride at stake, others dream of fame, love and the ability to change their past. Chekhov’s darkly comic masterpiece is reignited for the 21st century by one of the most exciting new voices in British Theatre, Anya Reiss, Winner of the Most Promising Playwright at both the Evening Standard and Critics’ Circle awards. This updated and revised edition was published following the West End production directed by Jamie Lloyd in 2022.

Pembrokeshire, 1982. Things are going to change. This radical reworking of Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard places the action in early 80s Wales, at the dawn of another revolution - the Thatcher regime. Bloumfield sits on the sun-kissed south Pembrokeshire coast; a rambling, ramschackle old manor house where Rainey raised her children, surrounded by golden beaches and lush green orchards. But the death of her beloved son and husband sent Rainey fleeing to London, abandoning what remained of her family. Now, with the bank threatening to repossess, Rainey's daughters drag her back to Bloumfield. Rainey will have to face her ghosts - and her furious daughters - or lose everything. This reworking of Chekhov's play was first performed at the Sherman Theatre, Cardiff.