The Undiscovered Chekhov

FOREWORD

BY SPALDING GRAY

ICAME TO LOVE CHEKHOV early on because he felt good to speak. As an actor, when I spoke him, he felt familiar. He felt more familiar than most twentieth century playwrights I was speaking at the time.

I don’t act very much anymore, but when anyone ever asks me what role I would really like to play, I tell them that any male Chekhov role would be just fine.

When I was asked to do two public readings of stories from this collection I hesitated at first because I am not a good public reader. Then I thought, But it’s Chekhov so it’s got to be simple, in that gloriously divine way that my six year old is; simple in speech and complex in his being. So, I read some of these stories at two public gatherings and once again Chekhov felt good and I felt reconnected to him.

I rarely find life funny but I have often found it absurd. I think Camus defines the absurd as the meeting place between the rational and the irrational. That meet¬ing place, for me, is often found in these stories. They speak in a connected way about non-connectedness and social disorientation. These stories are like vivid, surreal dreams.

I suspect that it’s not only the writing, but also the translation that makes these stories feel like antique mirrors to our contemporary times. They portray a gracious irony that springs from a saddened idealist. They tickle my “absurd-bone.”

New York

April 1999