K Samka

In his short plays as well as in his short stories, Chekhov portrays characters we are not very much used to find on stage and he makes them live literally, the way Daumiers does in his drawings: farmers, bank clerks, people heavily in debt, struggling in an introvert, decrepit world, the finishing universe of the XIXth century's Russia. Yet we really have the feeling that we have already met them, somewhere. Just like in Chaplin's movies, burlesque and humaneness of the characters go hand in hand. It's great stuff for actors and actresses to work on.

Our project to stage these short plays was constantly associated with the idea to show them in singular places, not automatically dedicated to theatre: boards, squares, castles, gardens, open-air places, village halls. The current context prompted us to imagine a light, adaptable form, the duration of which being flexible. We wish to create a community show that could be also produced on great stages, we wish to mixt actors of several different generations, looking for exchange, passing on and solidarity with those who just start in theatre.

We have selected three plays and two short stories, particularly interested as we were, in their short size. Chekhov, of course excels at it. They are meant for a vast audience and have the quality and profundity of the great plays. The farce here is not what we usually believe. Of course it leads to laughing cruelly, but after all it shows people with a lot of tenderness. Pierre Pradinas