We recognize Anton Chekhov today as a founding father of the modern theatre, where the author—not the actor—is king. We acknowledge him as the author who gave Europe’s narrative fiction a new ambiguity, density, and subtle poetry. Of all the Russian ‘classics,’ he is, to non-Russians especially, the most approachable and the least alien, whether on the stage or the printed page. He lets his reader and spectator react as they wish, draw their own conclusions.”

— Donald Rayfield, Emeritus Professor of Russian and Georgian, Queen Mary University of London