TEHRAN – A reading performance of Anton Chekhov’s comedy “The Proposal” will be held at Tehran’s Arasbaran Cultural Center on Tuesday.
The performance is directed by Alireza Nasehi and includes Amir Anvarian, Erfan Heydari, and Mahtab Ahmadi.
The Proposal is a famous one-act farce written between 1888 and 1889 and premiered in 1890. Known for its fast pace, witty dialogue, and situational humor, the play embodies Chekhov’s mastery of comedic timing and character dynamics. The film revolves around a humorous and absurd clash of personalities, highlighting human vileness and vanity through a light-hearted lens.
The center of the story is Ivan Vasilyevich Lomov, a neighbor of Stepan Stepanovich Chubukov. Lomov, a hypochondriac who is obsessed with his health, visits Chubukov’s house and asks Chubukov’s 25-year-old daughter Natalia Stepanovna to marry him. With Chubukov’s enthusiastic approval, Lomov prepares to propose, but is distracted when Natalia enters. In an awkward and comical twist, Lomov tries to express his intentions, but ends up getting into a heated argument with Natalia over Oxen Meadows, a piece of land that splits their property. As a result of the argument between the two, Lomov suddenly experiences palpitations and numbness in his legs.
As the argument escalates, Chubukov joins in, furious that Lomov dares to propose marriage. He belittled Lomov as a “fool” and angrily ordered him to leave. However, Natalia becomes aware of Lomov’s intentions and becomes hysterical, begging her father to take Lomov back. Lomov comes back and the two resume their argument – this time over which dog is better, Guess or Squeezer.
The argument caused Lomov to collapse from exhaustion, causing concern from organizers. Miraculously, Lomov recovered, and Chubukov effectively forced the young couple to accept his marriage proposal. The play ends with another comedic quarrel, this time over a dog, while Chubukov tries to regain his composure and offers them champagne.
“The Proposal” was an immediate success in early performances in St. Petersburg and Moscow, and quickly became popular in small Russian towns. Reportedly, Tsar Alexander III himself liked the play. Interestingly, Chekhov himself rejected farce as serious literature.
Throughout the 20th century, the play has been adapted and reinterpreted across different cultures and theater styles. In the 1920s, Vassar College performed it three times a night, experimenting with realism, expressionism, and constructivism, emphasizing different emotional and aesthetic aspects in each version. One production had actors wearing masks and leaning into the tragedy, while another showed performers in work clothes tossing a ball around in a playground setting.
In 1935, Soviet theater innovator Vsevolod Meyerhold combined The Proposal with Chekhov’s other short plays, The Bear and The Anniversary, into a three-act work titled Thirty-Three Faints, a satirical critique of the pre-revolutionary pretensions of intellectuals. The play’s influence spread around the world, with adaptations including a 1957 Australian television version and a 1972 parody of the Soviet slapstick film Ilya, My God.
Most recently, the play was performed three times in 2016 at St Werburgh Parish Hall in Manchester, England, demonstrating its enduring appeal. Furthermore, Indonesian film director Benjamin Sueb turned “The Proposal” into a film called “Pinangan” in 1976.
SAB/