ABSTRACT
The play is Chekhov's ‘Marriage Proposal’, set first in the realistic manner for which it was obviously written: a Russian interior, minarets of St. Basil glimpsed through recessed windows, rich hangings, carved furniture, the inescapable ikon, the inevitable samovar. Within these pleasantly plausible walls the actors move as those unimportant people whom the genius of Chekhov makes significant: Lomov nervously regarding matrimony with one auspicious and one drooping eye: Chubukov, the jovial-irascible father of conventional comedy; Natalya, who, under the guise of feminine charm gives her men hell and hysterics. So played, the actors to the extent that they possess talent, become imagined characters; and painted flats, to the extent that they possess effectiveness, become a lived in house. Sunlight through the window, steam from the samovar, Russian beards on American faces - all real, or as good as real.
