Nervous Breakdown. Three One-Act Plays by Anton Chekhov

The celebrated German director Peter Stein directs an extraordinary company staging Crisis of Nerves. Three one-acts by Anton Čechov and returns to one of his reference authors by creating an unconventional artistic production mode around a group of actors and collaborators, for a collective creative continuity of remarkable depth.
Stein has chosen L’orso, I danni del tabacco, La domanda di matrimonio and for the interpretation Maddalena Crippa, Alessandro Averone, Sergio Basile, Gianluigi Fogacci, Alessandro Sampaoli, Emilia Scatiglio who will alternate in the various pièce, which Čechov himself not yet 30 years old called “scherzi scenici”: the smallest dramas in the world… in general, it’s much better to write small things than big ones: few pretensions and assured success. So what else? In fact, the great Russian author's one-act plays have been performed all over the world.
Written between 1884 and 1891, these one-act plays are inspired by French comedy and vaudeville, genres very much in vogue in France in Chekhov's time. Over time, they have captivated audiences around the world and have become a valuable source of inspiration for actors, writers and directors, as well as irresistible entertainment for entire generations of spectators.

Director's Notes
After the failure of his first two works, the young Čechov giurònever to write againù for dramatic theatre and decided to devote himself exclusively to vaudeville. This has given us a series of one-acts, full of sarcasm, of comicà paradoxical, of extravagant absurdityà paradoxical, extravagant absurdityà, and which in turn became the fertile ground for the’experience and preparation of the great works of maturityàof the’author.
In the three exemplary works we present, the characters from time to time get nervous, fall ill, fall prey to hysterical attacks or argue with each other all the time.
Ne The’Bear the protagonist almost dies of rage, over a debt he is not repaying from a woman, whom he goes so far as to challenge to a duel, only to end up on his knees asking her to be his wife.
Ne The Harms of Tobacco a supposed speaker is due to give a lecture on the negative effects of tobacco, but amid sneezing and asthma attacks, he actually confesses that he wants to end the disastrous life he leads as his wife's husband.
Ne The Marriage Application the groom-to-be, due to shyness and other physical difficulties, is unable to ask his bride-to-be the fateful question, and even gets into an argument with her, who in turn gives him a hard time and falls into hysterics when he falls unconscious from hypochondria.
The extreme comedy, exasperation and excesses of cruelty used by the author can only work if accompanied by a realistic and psychologically justified background. However, these are still Chekhov's works. These are the assumptions on which the actors had to work. Let us hope we have done so successfully.

Peter Stein