Después de haberme leído casi toda la obra de Chéjov, por fin puedo decir que en este drama el autor tiene las narices de rematar la acción dramática del personaje principal. Ya era hora. ( )

My ears were ringing after finishing this play, because it felt like everyone was yelling all the time. Ivanov, the title character, is a disillusioned, burned-out 35-year-old who no longer loves his wife but can’t actually tell her himself because that would be too easy. He has an affair with a younger woman and everyone thinks he’s after her for the money, so there’s a lot of shouting about that. The estate he lives on isn’t making much money and his loans are being called in, so there’s a lot of angsting about that. I’m around Ivanov’s age and can definitely relate to feeling like a failure after acquiring a lot of responsibilities that you can’t keep up with, but I couldn’t condone his keeping his wife in the dark, nor the fact that he and others hid from her that she was dying of tuberculosis. ( )

National Theatre (Young Chekhov Season) : Astoundingly good, I wasn't familiar with the play before viewing but it has that perfect mix of tragedy and comedy that the best Chekhov has - assuming it's not just the adaptation, it's interesting reading the reviews here of readers who don't see any comedy in the play. Saying that though, was mulling over lots on the way out and throughout, definitely aiming to see the other 2 plays as part of the season. ( )

A convoluted morality play in which the main character spends all of his time either complaining how sad he is or arguing about how bad of a person he either is or isn't. There is some excellent writing in here, of course, but I didn't find the play overly compelling or even convincingly philosophical, just a bunch of people alternately gossiping and complaining, so much so that it was a relief when Chekhov's Gun finally came full circle. I'm sure others will argue the play's superiority, and it's possible they are right, but it just didn't appeal to me. ( )

It can be easy to get frustrated with the characters in this play, but it's interesting to sit down and analyze them. ( )