The Chekhov
PREMIERING IN 2025
In The Chekhov, two performers wait through a series of crises, an endlessly changing series of scenarios, that move constantly between comedy and tragedy.
Waiting for Greta Thunberg to solve the climate crisis.
Waiting for Ukraine to win the war, still.
Waiting for Bergen to open a ramen shop.
An inside–outside choreography that uses words, activism, punk music and fireworks.
The Chehov re-composes the themes and narative structure of Anton Chekhov’s 1901 play Three Sisters to connect to the present post-Covid bewilderment and contemporary experience. The ‘contemporary experience’ is widely held to stem from a profound sense of uncertainty or shock in the face of the unimaginable, resulting in a loss of fixed points of reference where neither the world nor the self any longer possesses unity, coherence, or meaning.
Three Sisters by Chekhov is the story of three sisters who have lost both parents, who struggle to find meaning in their present context (a small provincial town) while longing to return to Moscow, and who suffer inaction and disenchantment. In this way, Three Sisters is offered as a source material to speak to this contemporary experience. On a personal level, it speaks directly to my present situation.
Concept and Direction by NICOLA GUNN
Created in Collaboration with CAROLINE ECKLY
Performed by CAROLINE ECKLY and NICOLA GUNN
Co-produced by Carte Blanche, the Norwegian Contemporary Dance Company. Supported by Norsk Kulturrådet and Live Studio at Bergen Kunsthall.
Photos: Thor Brødreskift 2024