A Look Inside "Anton’s Shorts" – Maybe the Funniest Chekhov You’ll Ever See

American Players Theatre is not a company that does things in a hasty, slap-dash way. But when the COVID-19 pandemic closed all the theaters in 2020, the troupe put together an online performance of three short plays by Anton Chekhov, recorded in the actors’ homes in front of laptop cameras after only a few hours of rehearsal. The plays were broadcast on PBS so that while the public was confined to their homes, they could get a small glimpse of the theater they were missing. 

The first of many online performances we would watch that year, the form was wonky, the sound was temperamental, the props and costumes were improvised, but the plays were very funny and the performances were memorable. More than that, they were a balm in a distressing time. 

To make sure that the actors performing these short Chekhov works were in good hands, APT’s Artistic Director Brenda DeVita hired nationally known director and playwright, Aaron Posner to direct the online performance. (This is roughly the equivalent of hiring Lin Manuel Miranda to write a song for your cousin’s birthday party.) 

A devotee of Chekhov, Posner has freely adapted some of the Russian playwright’s great works to tremendous acclaim. His re-imagining of Chekhov’s The Seagull, titled Stupid F**king Bird, was one of the ten most produced plays in the country in 2015 and has had more than 250 productions worldwide. And Life Sucks, his modern take on Uncle Vanya, has also been performed widely. 

Photo by Liz Lauren.

So it is not surprising that, two years later, DeVita commissioned Posner to revisit the hastily realized pandemic piece and develop something more substantial for APT’s regular season. This is part of an ongoing creative relationship that APT enjoys with Posner, who has directed five full productions with the company since 2011, including The Glass Menagerie, The Doctor’s Dilemma, Endgame, Heartbreak House, and The Rivals.

Opening on August 12 and running in the outdoor Hill Theatre through October 6, Posner’s Anton’s Shorts includes five of Chekhov’s many “vaudeville” comedies; The Bear, On the Harmfulness of Tobacco, The Proposal, Swan Song, and I Was a Moscow Hamlet. In a recent interview, Posner said, “I picked the best ones. These are the ones that spoke to me. They are small works of great craft. This is not Chekhov in his full complexity, it’s him in clown mode.”

Photo by Liz Lauren

First produced in the late 19th century, Chekhov himself did not take the plays too seriously, writing “I’ve managed to write a stupid vaudeville which, owing to the fact that it is stupid, is enjoying surprising success.”

To tie the evening together and provide some commentary on the characters’ predicaments, Posner has put the author onstage – his freely imagined version of a young Anton Chekhov who is just entering the world of theater. Posner explained his use of the device, saying “Chekhov is inviting us in to the experience; framing it in a way. He’s asking the audience to look at the under side of things and consider the characters and their vulnerability.”

Photo by Liz Lauren .

Although Posner’s other adaptations have been set in the present day, this group of plays will have a 19th century look and feel, while emphasizing timeless themes. “You can set this play 120 years ago in Russia, but the characters are going to feel very familiar,” said APT Artistic Associate Jake Penner, who is directing the production. “Their lives are messy. They each realize something essential about themselves over the course of their story and they don’t know what to do next. That sort of sudden moment of realization and reorientation feels very modern to me. ” 

When asked about the overall tone of the evening, Penner was confident that audiences will enjoy themselves. “We are solidly in the realm of comedy,” he commented. “It’s kind of ‘comedy plus’. Similar to the TV show ‘The Office,’ a lot of the humor in these shorts comes from social discomfort.”

Posner maintains that the humor comes directly from the source material, although some modernizations were needed. “The world changes quickly,” he said. “The rhythms that we expect in comedy, the structure, the pace continue to evolve. So there are language changes in this version and the rhythms are more available to our contemporary ears. But it was my intention to create a play that Anton Chekhov would like if he walked around in the world today.”

For Posner, one of the joys of working on this adaptation was his familiarity with the actors who would be performing it. “It was definitely easier hearing their voices in my head,” he said, “knowing that it was going to be core company members like Brian Mani, Jim Ridge, David Daniel, Sarah Day, and Tracy Michele Arnold saying the lines.”

“It’s an honor to write for such gifted people,” he continued, “I have been able to work with APT and a company of actors I know well to develop the piece and watch it grow. That’s not very common, and I feel very privileged and very fortunate.”

He continued, “I also wrote this with the APT audience in mind. It’s a great actors’ theater and also a great audience theater. The attention, care and love that the audience brings up the hill is a perfect match for this play.”

To purchase tickets for Anton’s Shorts, visit the American Players Theatre website or call the box office at 608-588-2361.