Waiting for the summer with Chekhov
Based on the short stories by A. P. Chekhov, Olga Barabás wrote and directed the latest production of the Tamási Áron Theatre, with friendship as the central theme. In fact, the inspiration for the play came when the director, leafing through a Chekhov monograph, saw a photograph of the writer posing with two of his lady fans. When will Summer be? will be performed in the theatre’s Chamber Hall, with opening performances on Friday and Saturday 11th and 12th April at 7 pm.
The main characters in the story are Masha and Tanya, who are both fans of Chekhov’s art. Masha is a landowner living in the countryside and Tanya is an actress, but her journey is not only one of success. Masha is so impressed by the performance of the actress playing Masha in The Seagull that she writes a letter to her after the performance and Tanya replies to the letter. Their correspondence, which lasts seven and a half years, from October 1896, the year of the premiere of The Seagull in St Petersburg until the year of Chekhov’s death, develops into a special friendship. The recurring theme is, of course, their admiration for the writer, Anton, but they also share many problems and thoughts about their lives and their situation. They vow to meet and seek out Anton Pavlovich.
“There are moments that cannot be told in words, but only felt, such as shame, and theatre is the perfect medium to express them. Chekhov himself said that you have to write a play in which people come and go, talk or play cards, not because the writer wants them to, but because that’s the way life is. So we tried to make sure that everything we wanted to express really happened on stage, and in doing so we tried to create a real community with the audience. It’s a maximum challenge for the creators, but I feel it’s a way of telling stories and communicating. We hope the audience will be partners in this adventure,” the director said of the production.
