The Essay
Chekhov Essays, Ruth Thomas
The short story writer Ruth Thomas confesses how her early ignorance and dislike of Chekhov turned later to love as she came to emulate his loving depictions of domestic life. After Shakespeare, Anton Chekhov is the most perfomed playwright in the world and amongst the most revered writers of short stories. While the pleasure he has given to theatre audiences and readers is immense, these Essays explore his legacy in terms of the craft and technique that he continues to bequeath to theatre practitioners and writers today. In the fourth of five programmes celebrating the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of Chekhov's birth, the novelist and short story writer Ruth Thomas tells the true tale of how a missing cat in a misty cherry orchard started a life long interest in the life and work of Chekhov.