Why Chekhov?
It’s rather undefinable theatre, although I would argue that good theatre should be undefinable.
A standard I try to hold true to as a director (and as a human person) is to try and find the comedy in a drama and try and find the drama in a comedy. Trust me, it’s easier than you think.
Because comedy comes from pain, for humor to hold true we must be honest in hopelessness and authentic in abjection. Satire is the most threatening form of comedy because its distances the player from the problem. It’s funny because it’s true. It’s also me. It’s funny because I have the objectivity that distance grants and have successfully coped (or not).
Because drama comes from us, the audience becomes the forced perspective. We’ve all known that person, we’ve all been that person- we watch as tragic figures of friends, enemies or our past selves dig their own graves and we grapple by giggling. Or: we celebrate how we’ve overcome, we celebrate speaking ugly truths to power, we celebrate the blatant broadcast of darkness that’s always been avoided, we celebrate the anti-hero because he is so incredibly charming, complicated and human and even though he just did that, we love him anyway.
Good storytelling- good theatre- is all about the flaws and facets of every corner of what it means to be authentically human; The baffling, evolving and multitudinous of layers within relationships to people, places, things and ourselves.
Why Chekhov? It’s accurate