Chekhov’s Ivanov follows Nikolai Ivanov, a middling Russian landowner crushed by debt and by the slow decline of his wife, Anna Petrovna, who is dying of tuberculosis. Across four acts, his inertia curdles into melancholy and self-destruction, swinging between biting comedy and harrowing despair. Written in a ten-day burst in 1887, when Chekhov was only twenty-seven, the play crackles with youthful urgency as tragedy and humor intertwine.
Director–actor Jean-François Sivadier infuses this new staging with his distinctive theatrical energy, pairing veteran performers with fresh faces to reignite the play’s original heat. Echoing Gustav Mahler’s dictum that “tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire,” the production seeks to keep Chekhov’s raw, combustible spirit blazing on today’s stage.
In French. Ages 16 and up.
