Our 2nd Radio Play! Hurray!
Welcome to the second production by Little Wonder: A performance of The Boor written by Anton Chekhov. Click on the play button below to listen to the play (or download to listen later), then read beyond the link to learn more about the cast, the play and the production itself. Enjoy! And if you do enjoy, please like and share!
Cast
Damian Corcoran as LUKA, servant of MRS POPOV
Damian Corcoran is an actor, director, voice artist and language coach. He has been acting in France for over 25 years and has wide experience in theatre, film dubbing and voice overs, primarily in English. An accomplished voice actor and dubber, he has worked from some of the biggest production companies in Paris including Dubbing Bros, Arte and Canal+. His theatre work has ranged from Shakespeare to Neil Labute, in theatres such as Le Nesle, L’Atelier, and Le Sudden. He performs public readings for Moving Parts Paris, his own poetry for Spoken Word Paris, and is co-founder of Brava Productions and Open Globe Theatre Paris.
Sonia Backers as HELENA IVANOVNA POPOV, a young widow, mistress of a country estate
Sonia is an English/Australian actor based in Paris. She studied in Australia and started acting with the theatre troupe Shakespeare Where You Like It, also playing Ophelia in Shakespeare by the Sea’s Hamlet and Viola in Iron Cove Theatre’s Twelfth Night. On television she was in SBS’s English at Work, the TV film Les Amants du Flore (2006) and made every Australian’s obligatory appearance in Home and Away; in the cinema she had parts in Les Fanatiques and The Man in the Iron Mask (1998). Since arriving in Paris her works has including a wide array of theatre, from the classic to the modern, as well as many short films, commercials, and voice overs.
Nicolas Calderbank as GRIGORI STEPANOVITCH SMIRNOV, proprietor of a country estate
Nick Calderbank has lived in Paris for over 30 years, during which he has worked extensively in film, TV, and theatre as an actor and director. He is a founder member of The On Stage- New Open Space Theatre Company, producing works by Shakespeare, Pinter, Mamet, Ayckbourne, and more. He has played both Prospero and King Lear directed by Rona Waddington at The Theatre de Nesle, and scores of credited television appearances as well as dubbing for films, cartoons and documentaries
Sound Effects, Editing and the Little Wonder Jingle are by Chris Taylor.
Anton Chekhov
Russian Author Anton Chekhov (1860-1904) was one of the greatest playwrights who ever lived and a master of the short form. He was one of the early modernists, who sought to revolutionise the arts with a self-conscious approach to the literary form and make everything new.
The irony is that Chekhov’s revolution was so effective it no longer seems revolutionary. His most famous works sought to submerge the audience in the text, to create a theatre of life: he wanted his characters to act and speak the way people really act and speak to each other. Nowadays that just seems normal. But when the actors in EastEnders or CSI Miami are pretending everything is real instead of talking to the camera and speaking in verse you can thank, amongst others, Anton Chekhov.
Chekhov, Stanislavski and the Moscow Arts Theatre
Like most true rebels, initially Chekhov’s work was poorly received by critiques. He was just about to give it all up and concentrate on his day job (he was a doctor) when theatre practitioner Konstantin Stanislavski picked Chekhov’s play The Seagull for performance by the Moscow Art’s Theatre to explore and demonstrate his growing interest in the concept of naturalism.
Naturalism is the attempt to create the illusion of reality in theatre: natural behaviour by characters based on study of human nature, resulting in a play that feels truthful and real rather than flamboyant and staged. Naturalistic theatre seeks to explore events that are meaningful and life-altering, using simple, uncluttered plots that allow the audience to focus on the emotional life of the characters.
After nearly unprecedented 80 weeks of rehearsal[i] Stanislavski’s version of The Seagull was finally performed to great acclaim, and both Chekhov, Stanislavski and Naturalistic theatre’s futures were assured: so much so that their revolutionary ideas seem common sense now.
The Boor and Chekhov’s Shorts
Chekhov’s shorter pieces are lighter and rather less experimental than his full-length plays – in this case, it almost makes The Boor seem more experimental to a modern audience because the dialogue is less realistic than his other work. Smirnov growls and grumbles to himself; Luca wails and exposits in equal measure; Popov makes dramatic speeches about love, loss and betrayal that veritably swoon from the text.
This is not to suggest that The Boor is not a quality piece of literature, but it is clear from the outset (and the cat jokes) that Chekhov is having a little fun here, and he wants us to take part.
What is The Boor about?
Mr Smirnov comes to visit the grieving widow Mrs Popov demanding money owed by her late husband. The argument escalates as she denies she can pay immediately and he refuses to leave, leading all the way to the point that they agree to duel. Her passion, however, has enamoured him – and instead of duelling they kiss, just as Luca arrives with armed manservants to evict the unwelcome guest. The play is structurally beautiful, formed around the breaking of three chairs as the increasingly frustrated Smirnov passes from anger to fury to desire.
A little like A Marriage has been Arranged , the first play recorded, this chamber piece has more depth than initially appears. Mrs Popov is not grieving her husband but rather the idea of her husband that she lost when, after his death, she discovered the truth of his infidelities. She admires how he looked on horseback, but her memories of their relationship are sour and angry. Smirnov’s confusion and anger are as much to do with the hypocrisies of the world about him as the money owed. The characters fury and disappointment ultimately draw them together.
Mrs Popov #Metoo?
Unlike Sutro’s A Marriage, however, it is not an intellectual but rather a physical attraction that brings the two of them together – Popov admires Smirnov’s arms and thick neck, Smirnov her smouldering eyes and slim figure. A modern audience may be left a little uncomfortable by the conclusion when Smirnov physical overcomes Popov’s protestations to take her into his arms.[ii]
Rather than feeling that this is a #metoo moment for poor Mrs Popov, I think it helps to focus on the sexual frustrations of both the characters – and particularly Mrs Popov. Luca tells her right from the beginning that as a beautiful, independently wealthy woman should be out enjoying young army officers. I like to think that Mrs Popov is embracing the notion that instead of staying faithful to a ghost out of spite, she would be much better off drinking Kvass and embracing some nice young cavalry officers.
The Boor and Women’s Emancipation
Central to the play is Chekhov gently poking fun at the nascent liberal debate about women’s emancipation that had begun in Russia at the time. Between them Popov and Smirnov argue that men are rude and inconstant, while women are fickle and manipulative; yet what Chekhov shows us is how both men and women are creates driven by their passions. We are capable of switching from anger to love in a second, and ultimately just as capable as infidelity, fickleness and love as each other. A well-played Mrs Popov, which I think we had, can express her physical attraction to Smirnov at the same time as her anger. In the end, her kissing of Smirnov and oat-denial for Tobbie is a type of liberation: from her fake grief, from the role she had forced upon herself, and towards one of enjoying life.
Crucially, Chekhov is undermining the pseudo-intellectualisation of the emancipation debate by both showing the similarities in the passions of both Popov and Smirnov, regardless of their gender, and that human nature – the way in which anger can cede to passion, that our desires can overcome our intellects – will inevitably triumph over our shallow, academic and artificial distinctions between genders. I might be crediting Chekhov with more foresighted than he had. But this is how I like to interpret the text: in the end, their passions as humans are more important than their genders. In both our first two plays, man and woman meet and unite as people rather than genders – whether that be on a physical or intellectual level, it’s quite a positive conclusion.
Problems with Translation
Unfortunately, we weren’t working from the best possible translation. No modern translator, for example, would use the phrase “made love with other women before me” to mean what Chekhov means here! Our problem is one of copyright. We can only use material out of copyright, and a translator has copyright just the same as an author, so we’re stuck using old texts. For example, a better translation of this play is “The Bear”[iii] by Grosset &Dunlop (New York:1946) is still in copyright – and a modern translator would unquestionably do a better job of capturing a natural tone.
This does raise the question as to whether the slightly stilted dialogue isn’t because Chekhov is making less of an effort towards naturalism while he’s busy having fun, but more because this version was translated a hundred years ago! Whatever the truth, until we start making money from releasing free radio plays[iv], we’re stuck with old texts.
What’s next?
This was our second play and we’re learning ever so much from the process. Chris composed a new jingle, which is awesome; I am getting the hang of envelope modifications and normalisation, and the whole process is getting faster and easier. It’s still an enormous challenge finding ways to make clean recordings in noisy, smelly[v], busy old Paris, but my wonderful actors make it all much better than my experience and ability probably deserve!
Coming up next is a short play by Robert Frost, after which we have recorded a brand-new play written by yours truly. Yyep, we go Sutro, Chekhov, Frost, then… Crawford. Excellent. No pressure then. At the same time, we’ll be working to expand the website and ultimately open other ways you can access, subscribe and download our work (such as iTunes, YouTube and Spotify).
Let us know what you think in the comments, and subscribe at the bottom of the post or in the sidebar so we can let you know when we release new plays!
Picture: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Leib_Ural_Cossack_-_Lower_ranks_of_the_Imperial_guard.png
[i] Stanislavski still felt it was under rehearsed, which just goes to show that there has been no point in history when directors have been satisfied.
[ii] PS. It turns out a kiss is a really difficult thing to show in a radio adaptation…
[iii] Yep, The Bear and The Boor are the same play. Go figure.
[iv] Stop laughing at the back.
[v] Yes, the smell effects the quality of the recording. No, you shut up.
