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A Provincial Life
by Peter Gill
The English Stage Society
Royal Court Theatre, 30 October 1966
Chekhov's long story My Life, upon which this play is based, was written in 1896 during the period of his maturity as a story writer. His work of this time is a powerful reflection of contemporary Russian life. The story Ward 6 for example, set in a decrepit provincial hospital, with one terrible ward for the mentally sick, is such a strong image of the Russian intellectual's dilemma, that the young Lenin was reported after reading it 'to have been seized with such a horror that he could not bear to stay in his room. He went out to find someone to talk to; but it was too late: they had all gone to bed. "I had absolutely the feeling", he told his sister the next day, "that I was shut up in Ward 6 myself"'.
I've often been blamed, even by Tolstoi, for writing about trifles, for not having any positive heroes revolutionists, Alexanders of Macedon .... But where am I to get them? I would have been happy to have them! Our life is provincial, the cities are unpaved, the villages poor, the masses abused. In our youth, we all chirp rapturously like sparrows on a dung heap, but when we are forty, we are already old and begin to think about death. Fine heroes we are!
Anton Chekhov
During my stay in Paris, the sight of a public execution revealed to me the weakness of my superstitious belief in progress. When I saw the head divide from the body and heard the sound with which they fell separately into the box, I understood, not with my reason but with my whole being, that no theory of the wisdom of all established things nor of progress could justify such an act; and that if all the men in the world from the day of creation, by whatever theory, had found this thing necessary, it was a bad thing, and that therefore, I must judge of what was right and necessary, not by what men said and did, not by progress, but by what I felt to be true in my heart.
Leo Tolstoy, My Confessions
The first production was at the Royal Court Theatre Upstairs:
A Provincial Life
Royal Court Theatre
by Philip Hope-Wallace
For one of its Sunday night try-outs at the Royal Court Theatre the English Stage Company put on last night “A Provincial Life,” by Peter Gill, who also directed the low-keyed but accomplished production. The play dramatises one of Chekhov’s stories published in 1896 (three years before “Uncle Vanya") and is full of interesting parallels. Given that dramatising a Chekhov story must face the competition of the author’s great plays, it was surprising and successful in as much as we soon seemed to be watching an original. There were intermittent flashes of recognition: a picnic where one of the guests is unwelcome and an important sentimental declaration falls to the ground. Or a scene where a talkative Army doctor, like a cynical Astrov, despairs of Russian sloth and boredom. Or the after dinner conversation with the well-to-do young lady who aspires to educate herself and do something useful. How strongly the atmosphere gathers, how wry the pathos, half silly, half sincere, which it generates.
“My Life,” the original title of the story, tells of young Misail who rebels against his bourgeois family, moves into lodgings with an old nurse, loses a job as a telegraphist and on rather Tolstoyan principles becomes a house painter. Anxious to renounce his heritage, Misail finds that it will not let him go. The pretentious amateur theatrical world of a certain Mme Mufke still beckons. His sister, like Varia in “The Cherry Orchard,” dwindles into a drudge and stabs at his guilt. Anyuta, the loving girl, finds that she cannot shake hands with a workman.
Misail is torn and full of contempt at his own situation. Even heaven looks empty. Geoffrey Whitehead gives this feeble hero a crucified look of suffering. But the character remains strangely passive in theatrical terms, like “Ivanov.” Susan Engel and Pamela Buchner are strikingly good as the soulful girls with Shivaun O’Casey as the sister. There are effective contributions by Anthony Hopkins as the doctor and John Normington. To those prepared to fill in some of the overtones of a dramatised “novella,” this is a gently rewarding experiment.
There was also a radio transmission, with a different cast.
A Russian Province in the 1890s. There will be one interval of 15 minutes.
| Misail Alexander Poloznev | Geoffrey Whitehead | |
| Alexander Pavlovitch Poloznev, his father, an architect | John McKelvey | |
| Kleopatra Alexandrova Poloznev, his sister | Shivaun O'Casey | |
| Anyuta Ivanova Blagovo, their friend | Susan Engel | |
| Andrey Ivanov, a working man | Richard Butler | |
| Ivan Cheprakov, a school friend of Misail's | Richard O'Callaghan | |
| Boris Ivanov Blagovo, a doctor | Anthony Hopkins |
A member of the National Theatre Company. |
| Victor Ivanov Dolzhikov, an engineer | Bernard Gallagher | |
| A Shopkeeper | Peter Wyatt | |
| A Workman | John Shepherd | |
| Other workmen | Toby Salaman | |
| George Cannell | ||
| Peter John | ||
| Oliver Cotton |
A member of the National Theatre Company |
|
| William Hoyland |
A member of the National Theatre Company. |
|
| Marya Victorovna Dolzhikova | Pamela Buchner | |
| An Old Man | John Normington |
A member of the Royal Shakespeare Company |
| Karpovna, Misail's and Kleopatra's old nurse | Anne Dyson | |
| Prokofy, her son, a butcher | Trevor Peacock | |
| Madame Azhogina | Gillian Martell | |
| Madame Mufka, an amateur actress | Jean Holness | |
| Madame Azhogina's daughters and guests | Rosemary McHale | |
| Jean Boht | ||
| Amaryllis Garnet | ||
| Charlotte Selwyn | ||
| Peter John | ||
| Toby Salaman | ||
| John Shepherd | ||
| William Hoyland | ||
| George Cannell | ||
| The Governor | John Normington | |
| Singer | Jean Boht | |
| Directed by | Peter Gill |
Peter Gill is a former assistant director at the Royal Court. His most recent production was the very successful "O'Flaherty V.C." at the Mermaid Theatre. His first play "The Sleepers' Den" was a presented by the English Stage Society in February, 1965. His other productions at the Royal Court have been D.H. Lawrence's first play, "A Collier's Friday Night", "The Local Stigmatic" by Heathcote Williams and "The Ruffian on the Stair'' by Joe Orton. His next production will be Otway's "The Soldier's Fortune", to be presented at the Royal Court in January. |
| Assistant to the Director | George Cannell | |
| Stage Manager | George Gavigan | |
| Assistant Stage Manager | Ken Cottell | |
| Spectacles by | Clifford Brown | |
| Other properties by | Robinson's of Monmouth Street |