Anton Chekhov's life featured in play

Sun Qiang (left) and Jiang Wenli perform the lead roles in I Take Your Hand in Mine.

Russian opera makes a comeback

Avante-garde version of 'Romeo and Juliet' hits Beijing

A play by Chekhov and one about him form a fascinating pairing that brings the greatness of the elusive Russian literary giant a bit closer to Chinese sensibility, writes Raymond Zhou.

Anton Chekhov enjoys a very unique place among China's theatergoers. There are frequent stagings of his plays, including his shorter, not-so-famous ones. But it would be an exaggeration to say his popularity in the Middle Kingdom is on par with, say, Shakespeare, let alone China's own inimitable playwrights, such as Lao She and Cao Yu. But Stan Lai seems to be on a mission to change that. The Taiwan impresa

rio, a renowned playwright and stage director in his own right, has just produced a double bill-Carol Rocamora's I Take Your Hand in Mine and Chekhov's The Seagull in Beijing. The former starts at 4 pm and, after a dinner break, the second play is performed. The three-day Beijing run has just ended, and now the show will embark upon a nationwide tour.

The two-hander, starring Jiang Wenli and Sun Qiang, recounts the last six years of the Russian playwright's life, with frequent references to his various plays, often featuring Olga Knipper, Chekhov's wife, in the leading role. It was a mesmerizing study on the mix of family and career, at once intimate and reflective of the larger theater scene in Russia at the time.

The two veteran actors brought out the subtle shifts in mood and dynamic from passion to longing to suffering to resignation, especially when bouts of illness turn to the gloom of mortality and long intervals of separation extend to an eternity by the Grim Reaper.

This play was produced in Taiwan in 2004 and in Shanghai in 2006. The Chinese title was changed to Love Letters, as the content is built on the 800-plus letters Chekhov and Olga wrote each other.

It may require familiarity with Chekhov's life and work to appreciate the finer details of the 90-minute play, but people with no prior knowledge are still moved by the love story at the core-one between a writer and an actress even though the latter did not seem to act as his muse.