ABSTRACT
The action of the third act, which takes place against the background of a great fire in the town, should be conducted quietly, Anton Chekhov insisted in a letter to Olga Knipper from Nice on 20 January 1901, so that the audience should feel that the characters are ‘tired and almost asleep’. Over a year has passed between the second and the third acts. Natasha has had her second child, a girl, this time by Protopopov whose relationship with her had become, as Irene declares, the talk of the town. Andrey has reached the apogee of his career by becoming a member of the Agricultural Board of which his wife’s lover was the chairman. Irene has been thrown out of her room and forced to share Olga’s bedroom, she has given up her job at the telegraph office and is working for the town council.
