Platonov (Chekhov)

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Stage work
German title: ' Platonov or The Fatherless'
Author: Anton Chekhov
Year of origin: 1878-81
Genus: Comedy in four acts
Original language: Russian

Platonow is the title under which an early, originally nameless drama by Anton Chekhov was published in German-speaking countries. The alternative title The Fatherless was also used. It is afour- act comedy that would have taken about seven and a half hours to perform in its unabridged state. The piece was written in 1880 .

action

Platonov is set in a dilapidated country house in the Russian provinces. The central figure is the married teacher Platonov, whom both the landowner Anna Petrovna and Sofja, the wife of her stepson, and one of his colleagues fall in love. Platonov himself is a cynical figure who likes to act as a witty entertainer in society. Throughout the play he is compared to both Hamlet and don Juan . He is the only one who is aware of the lack of ideas and principles of society, but also of the fact that he himself is part of this society. He cannot find a way out of this situation and is overwhelmed by the love of the four women. Eventually, he increasingly withdraws into himself and into alcohol. At the end of the play he is shot by Sofja, who realizes that she cannot hope for a new life from him either.

history

Chekhov wrote this play between 1878 and 1881 when he attended high school in Taganrog and dedicated it to the actress Maria Yermolova , who was employed at the Maly Theater at the time. He delivered the manuscript (which his brother had carefully copied) to the Maly Theater in person, but it was rejected there. Out of disappointment, he then destroyed the manuscript. It was not until 1920 that the first version was discovered in Chekhov's estate and published. Today Platonov is sometimes perceived as a not yet fully developed early work by Chekhov, which attempts to build a bridge between literary practice and the satisfaction of the commercial taste of his time. Nevertheless, this piece already shows many features of his more important later works, namely the strong intertextual references and the characteristic selection and drawing of figures.

Today this piece is seldom performed and rarely performed in full. In 1976 it was filmed by Nikita Sergejewitsch Michalkow under the title Unfinished Score for a mechanical piano .

The people involved

  • Anna Petrovna, general
  • Sergei Pavlovich Voinitsew, her stepson
  • Sofja Yegorovna, his wife
  • Porfiri Semjonowitsch Glagolyev, a rich man
  • Kirill Porfiryevich Glagolyev, his son
  • Pavel Petrovich Stscherbuk
  • Marya Efimovna Grekova
  • Iwan Iwanowitsch Trilezki, Colonel, father of Alexandra (Sascha)
  • Nikolai Ivanovich Trilezki, country doctor, son of the colonel
  • Abram Abramowitsch Wengerowitsch
  • Mikhail Wassiljewitsch Platonow
  • Alexandra Ivanovna (Sascha), his wife
  • Timofej Gordejewitsch Bugrov, landowner
  • Ossip, a horse thief
  • Katja

Important productions

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Natalia Ginzburg: Anton Cechov - A Life , German by Maja Pflug, Berlin (1990), p. 19
  2. ^ Rolf-Dieter Kluge : Anton P. Cechov , Darmstadt (1995), p. 29
  3. ^ Henri Troyat: Chekhov , German by Christian D. Schmidt, Stuttgart (1987), p. 53
  4. ↑ a b Rolf-Dieter Kluge: Anton P. Cechov , Darmstadt (1995), p. 31
  5. ^ Henri Troyat: Chekhov , German by Christian D. Schmidt, Stuttgart (1987), p. 54
  6. ↑ Vera Gottlieb; Paul Alain: The Cambridge Companion to Chekhov . Cambridge (2000)
  7. ↑ Review in the ZEIT
  8. ^ Review and press review in the Nachtkritik
  9. ^ Augsburg: Film from: The Augsburg Theater shows a spectacular. In: donaukurier.de. Retrieved May 21, 2016 .
  10. ^ Jens Fischer: Platonowa - Schauspiel Hannover - Stephan Kimmig celebrates a party with Anton Chekhov. Accessed October 12, 2019 (German).