Playwright Anton Chekov
Tranlator Yılmaz Gruda
Director Zafer Algöz
Chekhov is one of Russia's chaotic transition period writers who successfully handles this chaos in his plays. In geographies where systems and administrations change, people cannot be expected to remain the same; nonetheless, the way those processes proceed is mostly harrowing. People change and transform, but in the short term, they cannot erase the cultural shock created by the old-new dichotomy from their souls. Anton Chekhov successfully reflects his age in his plays, bringing the text's subtexts (details) to the fore and spreading them throughout the play.
"A Marriage Proposal" tells about the obsessions of a woman who desires to marry and her arguments with her husband, with whom she cannot find a means of communication.
"The Bear", which reflects an ironic expression of the Russian State structure and the administration under this system, is among Chekhov's best-known and most-staged plays. At the base of the play lies a period critique - an entertaining and thought-provoking story of a man who visits the people who owe him money to clear his mortgage but cannot find what he is looking for in the debtors.
"On The Harmful Effects of Tobacco" is a play about a man who lived a life he didn't wish to live for 33 years because of a dominant wife. However, the problem and cause are neither the harms of tobacco nor marriage. The main problem is the ocean of depression, in which one cannot escape swimming; the struggle is to reach the lifeguard from this sea.
The sudden events in all three plays reflect the mood of the people and highlight how many communication problems people have had even in the past.
However, man is hidden in the details.
The sudden stubbornness that takes hold of Natalia in A Marriage Proposal and the man's reaction to his wife and married life in The Harmful Effects of Tobacco are all sudden and inevitable reactions. The consistency in Chekhov's pen appears in both of these plays, describing the unchanging human being despite changing times and places. Maybe the real lifesaver is the author (that is, the author, the thinker, the enlightener) himself? Who knows?
Actors
Stepan Stepanovic Chubukov / Mr. Grigory Smirnov Erdinç Gülener
Natalia Stepanovna / Ms. Popov Eylem Yıldız
Ivan Vasilevich Lomov, A Speaker And Luka Emre Başer, Hakan Elmasoğlu
Set and Costume Design Medina Yavuz Almaç
Light Design Birol Gezici
Co-Director Eylem Yıldız
Director’s Assistant Deniz Denker Atar
Stage Manager Cengiz Aydoğan
Stagehand Ali Yavşan
Light Control Kemal Edis, Gökhan Türlü
Props Supervisor Barış Akbaş, Burçin Özdemir
Women’s Tailor Raziye Öztürk
Men’s Tailor Hasan Basri Aktaş
Wigger Zeynep Bolkısık
