What do we really mean when we use the word ‘Chekhovian’? J. Douglas Clayton and Yana Meerzon pose this question in their introduction to this exceptional essay collection, which sheds new light on the Russian playwright through a focus on Chekhovian rewrites, mutations and adaptations. The contributors ask what it is that has made Chekhov's work so fertile a source for playwrights across the world, interrogating and extending notions of adaptation and transposition, most frequently turning to Linda Hutcheon's Theory of Adaptation. This collection intersects with studies of adaptation, cross-cultural theatre and Russian theatre; as such, it should be of interest to many scholars.
The volume possesses three parts, each composed of five chapters. Clayton opens Part I, ‘On Categories, Techniques, and Methodologies of Mutation’, with a chapter on the poetics of Chekhov's drama. He persuasively argues for a new understanding of Chekhov's texts in light of his medical training and interest in vaudeville. Marie-Christine Autant-Mathieu and Veronika Ambros both offer broad surveys, the former examining Chekhov's place in late and post-Soviet Russian playwriting and the latter studying Chekhovian ‘echoes’ in Czech theatre since the 1960s. Maria Ignatieva and Charles Lamb take the opposite approach, each examining a single playtext in relation to Chekhov's oeuvre – Tennessee Williams's 1980 play The Notebook of Trigorin and Howard Barker's 1996 play (Uncle) Vanya, respectively.
Part II, ‘Chekhov in the Post[ist] Context’, focuses on what Clayton and Meerzon term ‘adaptation as translation’ (p. 9). In a highly rewarding section, each chapter illuminates Chekhov in contexts of post-communism, globalization, diaspora, subaltern studies or post-colonial theory. Victoria Pettersen Lantz, whose chapter examines diasporic adaptation in the West Indies, offers a fitting assessment of the entire section, stating that the playwrights ‘are not so much writing back as they are writing forward’ (p. 165). Diana Manole opens with a fascinating chapter on Chekhov's transition in Romania from communist propaganda vehicle to post-communist and postmodern parody. Magda Romanska, Bishnupriya Dutt and Martine Pelletier follow with chapters on Chekhovian adaptation in Poland, India and Ireland, respectively.
In contrast with the focus on dramatic texts in the two previous sections, Part III, ‘Performing Chekhov in Radical Mutations’, turns to the question of performance. Sheila Rabillard analyses the Wooster Group's Fish Story, an ‘indigenization’ of Three Sisters. Contributors Jean Graham-Jones, James McKinnon and Yasushi Nagata examine radical adaptations of Chekhov in Argentine, Canadian and Japanese theatre. Meerzon contributes the final chapter, an analysis of a 2009 film adaptation of Chekhov's short story ‘Ward Number Six’. Fascinating, if somewhat out of place, this is the only chapter to depart wholly from Chekhovian playwriting and stage adaptation. Finally, the afterword offers an interview with Patrice Pavis, in which Pavis muses on the topics of Chekhov and adaptation. It is a fitting conclusion to a thought-provoking and resonant volume.
