This is one you can see repeatedly, as its' meaning will change as the world's events change. Right now, we are in a hideous time with our government composed of a gang of murderers and the future looks futile to all but the most corrupt. So the cuckolded husband's "I am happy, I am content' and the officer's "The world is getting better and better" rings pretty hollow to anyone of breeding and compassion at this time. When 1 of 3 school children think the 1st Amendment is dangerous and goes too far in its' freedoms, you know the job of those schoolteacher sisters needs to be done better. With the weak, anemic force of the 3 people playing the teachers, you understand why the most brutal people rule the administrations at most schools, and those with sensitivity cower under their bullying, also why most teachers in the South just ignore the theory of relativity now rather than 'get into trouble'.....although it is in the textbooks they are supposed to be teaching from.
You know there will be a suicide eventually with the combination of brains, education, boredom and lack of fulfillment. If ever work was extolled, it is extolled here. With so much sadness, the fact that the old poor nurse is taken care of in her old age is the only good news to come out of this play. Knowing that Checkov was a doctor, you understand why Olivier has so many great lines about 'killing the woman' and stays drunk most of the time.
The continual paen to the birch trees makes little sense other than the understanding that they indeed will be here long after we're gone and forgotten. Knowing that Olivier is dead and gone makes the lines about the future when 'all present' are dead more haunting. Irina with her great beauty, will remind you of all the high school beauty queens you knew who show up at reunions looking like cabbages, and just as sad. The sweet dumbo who is completely intimidated by the dinner party at the home of the town intellectuals turns into the 'conquering' fishwife, the 'mean little animal' as described by her husband who dominates all her betters in the end, screaming at the help, throwing the old nurse out of the house because 'she can no longer work, and she's only a peasant.' The fact that this woman comes from the lower classes makes her snobbery even more disgusting....although quite realistic in my experience. Just a look at the referred women in big hair with their petty prattle at the Inauguration of King George we just endured makes you know exactly where this character comes from.
Excellent movie. Buy it (and '1984') while freedom of expression is still somewhat allowed.
You know there will be a suicide eventually with the combination of brains, education, boredom and lack of fulfillment. If ever work was extolled, it is extolled here. With so much sadness, the fact that the old poor nurse is taken care of in her old age is the only good news to come out of this play. Knowing that Checkov was a doctor, you understand why Olivier has so many great lines about 'killing the woman' and stays drunk most of the time.
The continual paen to the birch trees makes little sense other than the understanding that they indeed will be here long after we're gone and forgotten. Knowing that Olivier is dead and gone makes the lines about the future when 'all present' are dead more haunting. Irina with her great beauty, will remind you of all the high school beauty queens you knew who show up at reunions looking like cabbages, and just as sad. The sweet dumbo who is completely intimidated by the dinner party at the home of the town intellectuals turns into the 'conquering' fishwife, the 'mean little animal' as described by her husband who dominates all her betters in the end, screaming at the help, throwing the old nurse out of the house because 'she can no longer work, and she's only a peasant.' The fact that this woman comes from the lower classes makes her snobbery even more disgusting....although quite realistic in my experience. Just a look at the referred women in big hair with their petty prattle at the Inauguration of King George we just endured makes you know exactly where this character comes from.
Excellent movie. Buy it (and '1984') while freedom of expression is still somewhat allowed.