Ivanov

In 1887, Chekhov wrote his first major play, Ivanov, which takes up the themes of the Platonov of his adolescence. It's a violent play, which he completed in two weeks. This passion is reflected in the astonishing crudity of the style and in the ineluctable dramatic progression that culminates in the almost unbearable wedding scene. The play provoked a furore that left Chekhov convinced that he had failed to make himself understood.

In 1889, deleting the comic aspects and modifying the denouement deemed too strange, he gave a toned-down version that was performed with great success. This second version would be the only one translated, and even the only one recorded in France.

We publish here, for the first time, the initial, brutal, innovative Ivanov and its academic version, as two fascinating stages in a reflection on dramaturgy that would also be the best of introductions to Chekhov's work.