The Jubilee (Chekhov)

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Anton Chekhov

The Jubilee ( Russian Юбилей , Jubilei ) is a one-act play by the Russian writer Anton Chekhov , which - written in December 1891 - was published in February 1892 in a lithographed Moscow edition. The author had staged one of his short stories from 1887 - A defenseless being , a parody of aging, wailing women. The German premiere took place on August 20, 1929 in Giessen . The piece appeared on the German book market in a translation by August Scholz in Halle in 1953 .

content

Accountant Kuzma Chirin scolds his bank director Andrej Schiputschin for a tailor and rags. Under severe time pressure, the accountant has to collect the remaining data for a status report from the bank. His director needs the paper by the afternoon. On the occasion of the bank's 15th anniversary, a five-man deputation is expected to deliver a congratulatory address bound in velvet and a silver jug. However, Shipuchin helped a little: he wrote the address himself, spent forty-five rubles on its cover and also paid for the jug. Chirin works doggedly because the director promised him a handsome cash bonus in the event of success - i.e. if the performance in the afternoon was satisfactory. If only the constant disturbances wouldn't hinder the calculation of the bank data! Since Chirin is the Director as misogyny accused. Chirin's wife complained. Only yesterday evening she had been followed by her husband with his knife drawn.

The next disruptive factor is Tatiana Alexejewna, the twenty-five year old wife of the director, entering the bank. Extremely fun-loving, she returned from a trip to her wife's mother and pretended to be a single woman in front of the gentlemen in the train compartment. To the chagrin of the always reckoning accountant, she has to tell her husband in detail all the details of the trip. Chirin does not get a rest. The next nerve-killer enters the bank: Nastassja Mertschutkina, wife of the dismissed government secretary, describes herself as weak and defenseless. The lady demands twenty-five rubles from the director and does not want to understand - a bank has absolutely nothing to do with government personnel matters, which are clearly in the case presented. Shipuchin doesn't know what else to do - he refers the Merchutkina to his accountant. He calls her an old witch and would like to pulverize her.

The Merchutkina cannot be driven out. Because the director is expecting the deputation and the annoying woman is finally supposed to disappear, he pays her the money she asked out of his own pocket. The Merchutkina stays and makes the next request. One should reinstate her husband who has been dismissed in the governorate. The deputation appears. Your spokesman does not have the right to speak because the two women alternately announce what is particularly important to them. The Merchutkina wants - as I said - the job for her husband and the director's wife has to finish her travelogue. It shows the suicide of a suitor who was turned down by one of the ladies visited by the director's wife. The deputation embarrassed the sails and later wants to try another attempt at congratulations.

Quote

  • The misogynist Chirin says to the director Schiputschin: "The women everywhere only cause harm and disorder."

Performances

filming

  • 1944, Soviet Union , Mosfilm : The Jubilee - feature film (Russian) on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of Anton Chekhov's death. Director: Vladimir Petrov . With Viktor Stanitsyn as bank director Andrej Schiputschin, Olga Androwskaja as his wife Tatiana Alexejewna, Vasily Toporkow as accountant Kuzma Chirin and Anastassija Sujewa as Nastassja Merchutkina.

Used edition

  • The anniversary. Schwank in one act. Translated from the Russian by Gudrun Düwel. P. 123–142 in: Wolf Düwel (Ed.): Anton Chekhov: Der Kirschgarten. Dramas. 719 pages. Rütten & Loening, Berlin 1964 (1st edition)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Russian Беззащитное существо (Чехов)
  2. ↑ Note under The Jubilee (Russian) in FEB, pp. 395–399
  3. ↑ Edition used, p. 651 above
  4. ↑ Edition used, p. 129, 2nd Zvu
  5. ↑ Russian Юбилей (фильм, 1944)
  6. ↑ Russian Петров, Владимир Михайлович
  7. ↑ Russian Станицын, Виктор Яковлевич
  8. ↑ Russian Андровская, Ольга Николаевна
  9. ↑ Russian Топорков, Василий Осипович
  10. ↑ The anniversary entry in the IMDb (English)
  11. ↑ online 38 min video (Russian) at tvkultura.ru