Hi Alison,
this is an interesting post, if I may ask, how does this tie into your
feelings towards the Avant Garde.
Best, Geoffrey
----- Original Message -----
From: "Alison Croggon" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, January 16, 2003 7:09 PM
Subject: Chekhov
> Reading Chekhov again last night (he's one of my favourite writers).
> Nina's speech in The Seagull gets me every time: one can of course
> never be sure about such impertinent speculation, but I have always
> felt that it is Chekhov himself speaking through Nina, about what he
> thinks art is about. Nina is often played as a victim, but I think
> that's a mistake; she's the only one with courage in the whole play.
> Chekhov of course knew all about endurance...
>
> I can't resist quoting from it. Nina, who disastrously left home to
> become an actress, is visiting Trepylov, a young writer, who she
> hasn't seen in two years; her former lover, the succesful writer
> Tregorin, who abandoned her, is in another room.
>
> NINA ... And he's here... Yes, it doesn't matter... Yes, he didn't
> believe in the theatre, he went on mocking my dreams, and little by
> little I too stopped believing and lost heart... And then came the
> troubles of love, petty jealousy, the constant fear for my child... I
> became petty, worthless, I acted mindlessly ... I didn't know what to
> do with my hands, I didn't know how to stand on the stage, wasn't in
> control of my voice. You can't understand what it's like to feel
> you're acting terribly. I am a seagull. No, that's not right ... Do
> you remember, you shot a seagull? A man came along, saw it and
> killed it, from having nothing to do... A plot for a short story.
> No, that's not right... [Rubs her forehead] What was I...? I was
> talking about the stage. Now I am not so... I am now a real actress,
> I act with enjoyment, with ecstasy, I get intoxicated on the stage
> and feel that I'm beautiful. And now, while I've been staying here,
> I've walked everywhere, I walk and walk, and think, think and feel
> how every day my spiritual powers grow ... Kostya, I know now, I
> understand. In what we do - whether we act on the stage or write -
> the most important thing isn't fame or glory or anything I used to
> dream about - but the ability to endure. To know how to bear your
> cross and have faith. I have faith and my pain is less, and when I
> think about my vocation, I'm not afraid of life.
>
> (From Anton Chekhov: Plays, Penguin Classics)
>
> Best
>
> A
> --
>
>
>
> Alison Croggon
> Home page
> http://www.users.bigpond.com/acroggon/
>
> Masthead Online
> http://au.geocities.com/masthead_2/
>
>
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