CHARACTERS
IRÍNA NIKOLÁEVNA ARKÁDINA, an actress
KONSTANTÍN GAVRÍLYCH TREPLYÓV, her son, an aspiring writer
PYÓTR NIKOLÁICH SÓRIN, her brother, a retired state councillor
NÍNA MIKHÁILOVNA ZARÉCHNAYA, a young girl, daughter of a local landowner
ILYÁ AFANÁSYICH SHAMRÁEV, a retired lieutenant, Sorin’s steward
POLÍNA ANDRÉEVNA, his wife
MÁSHA, their daughter
BORÍS ALEXÉICH TRIGÓRIN, a successful writer
EVGÉNY SERGÉICH DORN, a doctor
SEMYÓN SEMYÓNYCH MEDVEDÉNKO, a teacher
YÁKOV, a workman
COOK
MAID
The action takes place on Sorin’s estate. Two years pass between Acts Three and Four.
ACT ONE
Part of the park on Sorin’s estate. A wide alley leading into the park from the audience toward the lake is obstructed by a stage, hastily knocked together for an amateur performance, so that the lake cannot be seen. Bushes to the left and right of the stage.
Several chairs, a little table.
The sun has just set. On the stage, behind the closed curtain, Yakov and other workmen; sounds of coughing and hammering. Masha and Medvedenko enter left, returning from a stroll.
MEDVEDENKO
Why do you always go around in black?
MASHA
It’s in mourning for my life.1 I’m unhappy.
MEDVEDENKO
Why? (Reflecting) I don’t understand . . . You’re in good health, your father may not be rich but he’s well-off. My life is much harder than yours. I get only twenty-three rubles a month, minus pension deductions, but I don’t wear mourning.
They sit down.
MASHA
The point isn’t money. A poor man can be happy, too.
MEDVEDENKO
That’s in theory, but in practice it turns out like this: me, my mother, my sisters, and my little brother, and my salary’s all of twenty-three rubles. We’ve got to eat and drink, haven’t we? Need tea and sugar? Tobacco? That keeps you juggling.
MASHA
(Looking at the stage) The play will begin soon.
MEDVEDENKO
Yes. Miss Zarechnaya’s acting, and the play is by Konstantin Gavrilych. They’re in love, and today their souls will merge in striving to form one single artistic image. But my soul and yours have no common points of contact. I love you, my longing will not let me stay home, every day I walk four miles here and four miles back, and I only meet with phlegmatism on your part. That’s understandable. I’m without means, I have a big family . . . Who wants to marry a man who has nothing to eat himself?
MASHA
Nonsense. (Takes snuff) Your love touches me, I just can’t reciprocate, that’s all. (Offers him the snuffbox) Help yourself.
MEDVEDENKO
I don’t feel like it.
Pause.
MASHA
It’s stifling. There’ll probably be a thunderstorm tonight. You keep philosophizing or talking about money. In your opinion there’s no greater misfortune than poverty, but in my opinion it’s a thousand times easier to go around in rags and beg, than . . . Anyhow, you won’t understand that . . .
Sorin and Treplyov enter from right.
SORIN
(Leaning on a cane) I somehow feel out of sorts in the country, my boy, and, needless to say, I’ll never get used to it here. Last night I went to bed at ten, and this morning I woke up at nine feeling as if my brain got stuck to my skull from sleeping so long and all that. (Laughs) And after lunch I accidentally fell asleep again, and now I’m a total wreck—it’s a nightmare, finally . . .
TREPLYOV
Right, you ought to live in town. (Seeing Masha and Medvedenko) Wait, we’ll call you when it starts, but you mustn’t be here now. Go away, please.
SORIN
(To Masha) Marya Ilyinichna, kindly ask your father to order the dog untied, otherwise he howls. My sister couldn’t sleep all night again.
[MASHA
Tell him yourself. There’s millet in the barn now, and he says without the dog thieves will get it.
TREPLYOV
To hell with the millet.]
MASHA
You speak to my father, I’m not going to. Spare me that, please. (To Medvedenko) Let’s go!
MEDVEDENKO
(To Treplyov) So let us know before it begins.
They both exit.
SORIN
That means the dog will howl all night again. It’s funny, I’ve never lived in the country the way I wanted. I used to take a month’s vacation and come here to get some rest and all that, but they’d pester you so much with millet and oats that you’d already want to clear out on the first day. (Laughs) I always found it a pleasure to leave this place . . . Well, now I’m retired and I’ve got nowhere to go, finally. Live here, like it or not . . .
YAKOV
(To Treplyov) We’re going for a swim, Konstantin Gavrilych.
TREPLYOV
All right. Only be back in your places in ten minutes. (Looks at his watch) We’ll start soon.
YAKOV
Yes, sir. (Exits)
TREPLYOV
(Looking at the stage) There’s a theater for you. A curtain, then the wings, then empty space. No scenery. The view opens straight onto the lake and the horizon. We’ll raise the curtain at exactly eight thirty, when the moon rises...