I’ve commented numerous time about the sheer blandness of Chekhov’s titles. Anyone care to guess what this story is about? Very good!
We’ve also seen in story after story what ill regard Chekhov holds the entire theatrical profession.
In “A Play,” an amateur playwright begs a snobbish author to read her play – or, more accurately, to listen to her read the play out loud.
She reads it; it is dreadful; it goes on and on.
What is a critic to do? Well, in this case, he may (justifiably, the story suggests) murder her.
This tale is meant to be a humorous sketch, of course. Still, taken along with Chekhov’s other portraits of actors and theatrical folk, I’m not sure we shouldn’t consider this story to reflect the author’s actual position on the theater and all its hangers-on.
The first thing we do, Chekhov seems to be saying, is we’ll kill all the actors.
READ THIS? READ THAT!
This is really one of Chekhov’s least successful stories, mean-spirited and, worse, boring. I shouldn’t really use the phrase “least successful” to describe it, as there isn’t really any success here to speak of. That said, there are certainly similarities in this story to “A Defenceless Creature.” Neither story is much good but could be said to represent Chekhov’s retrograde dislike of aggressive women.
A Chekhov Circus 