Anton Chekhov

Click here for and interview with Michael about his one-man show. (I was originally going to put a link to the English Touring Theatre’s web site, which is where this interview was originally printed, but, on checking the link, this article appears to have been removed, so I shall put it in full on this site.)

Click here for an article written by Michael originally for The Independent newspaper and reprinted in the Old Vic programme

Other associated articles:

The train to Chekhov, The Guardian 22nd June 1984

Lucky Stryk, Radio Times 20th-26th October 1984

Adventures with Anton, The Guardian 15th January 2003

Why we still love Chekhov, Daily Telegraph 5th July 2004

Restoration drama: How Chekhov’s home has fallen into disrepair, The Independent 20th November 2008

If it’s Tuesday, I must be Chekhov, The Guardian 25th November 2008

Interview, Stateofthearts.org.uk, 25th June 2009

Reviews

The Chekhov I love

Evening Standard

19th January 2010

Thirty-five years ago I was travelling across Siberia reading a biography of Chekhov. I had thought I knew all about him: a middle-class playwright in a big hat, and if he had a social conscience he exercised it from his armchair. I stopped at Irkutsk and went to a Soviet liquor store in a comradely spirit to buy a bottle of vodka. The proprietor noticed my book and said there used to be a small hotel on the exact site of her shop where Chekhov once rested on his gruelling journey to the remote island of Sakhalin to report on the shocking prison conditions there.

Chekhov in Siberia - upsetting the government - what was this? I began to see there was much more to this complex and inspiring man than I thought. About the same time I was being urged by a friend to do a one-man show about Chekhov - I had kept saying the idea was ridiculous. In Irkutsk I changed my mind and started work the next day; now I've been playing my show for 25 years, and I always think of Siberian vodka when I do it.

Anton Chekhov

Devised by Michael Pennington

from the writings of Anton Chekhov

Production Information

Before opening at The Cottesloe Theatre on the 5th July 1984, this production visited 15 small-scale theatres, schools and colleges all over the country. Since then it has been toured both nationally and internationally.

Cast

Michael Pennington

Designer Alison Chitty