I have always felt an affinity to Masha in this play in previous readings; her struggle, stuck with the old, wanting the new, but unable to really know what she wants, always made me feel that this was the depth of Chekov's argument. Reading it again (double whammy...prep for Acting Space and also reading for Theorizing in a few weeks) I really felt that Andrei's position in the play rang out to me. This man of words and knowledge is forced to give that up for the more menial, in order to survive. His horrible, social-climbing wife Natasha has subjugated not only his body, but his soul.
The images of cutting down trees, people trampling through the garden, everyone leaving this grand old home, brought the sense of former grandeur, lost to the pursuit of the future.
What a lovely, sad, play.
The images of cutting down trees, people trampling through the garden, everyone leaving this grand old home, brought the sense of former grandeur, lost to the pursuit of the future.
What a lovely, sad, play.