Практический курс английского языка 2 курс
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КЛЮЧИ , 2 курс-аракин
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- Ex. IX a), p. 332
| Ex. VIII a), p. 331
Chekhov's play "The Sea-gull" was first staged in the Alexandrinsky Theatre in Petersburg. It was a complete failure. The play was ruined by a dull and clumsy production. It was staged in the "good old traditions" whereas Chekhov's plays were quite unlike any other plays written before and demanded new forms and devices. The Petersburg audience did not understand "The Sea-gull". There was laughter in most poetical scenes and many of the audience left long before the end of the play. It was a cruel blow to Chekhov. However, in the Moscow Art Theatre, which was not a year old then (it was in 1898), the same play directed by K. S. Stanislavsky was a tremendous success. Stanislavsky's production of "The Sea-gull" opened a new epoch in the history of the theatre and symbolized the triumph of the new and progressive forms over the old ones. In memory of that event a white sea-gull spreads its wings on the curtain of the Moscow Art Theatre. Ex. IX a), p. 332 The circumstances under which "The Sea-gull" was staged were complicated and painful. Anton Chekhov was seriously ill at the time, as his tuberculosis had got worse. Besides his depression was so deep that he might not have survived another failure of "The Sea-gull" like the one he had seen when it was first produced/put on in St. Petersburg. The failure of the new production might have killed the writer. His sister Maria, tears of anxiety in her ey§s, had warned us about it and implored us to cancel the performance. However, we needed it badly because financially the theatre was in bad shape/because the theatre was pressed for money, and we were in need of a new production to raise the box-office returns. Let the readers judge for themselves/ I leave it to the reader to judge what condition we, the actors, were in when we came on the stage to act in the new production for the first time knowing that the house was far from full. Standing on the stage we were listening to the inner voice whispering, "Act well, act brilliantly, achieve a success, a triumph. And if you fail, remember that on receiving your telegram the writer you love will die, put to death by your hands. You will become his executioners." I do not remember how we performed. The first act concluded amid death-like silence. One of the actresses fainted and I myself was on my last legs from despair. But suddenly after a long pause there was an uproar, a crash, a storm of applause. The curtain moved, went up... then down again and we just stood there, stunned. Then there was an uproar again and again up went the curtain... 1 We were all standing motionless, hardly aware that we were supposed to take curtain-calls. Eventually we sensed success and extremely excited, began to embrace/hug each other. We cheered M. Lilina who had played Masha and had melted the ice in the spectators' hearts with her closing words. Each act heightened the success and the performance ended in a triumph. Chekhov was sent a detailed telegram. 1 You can avoid using "again" twice: "...was another uproar and again up went the curtain...". жүктеу/скачать 1,21 Mb. Достарыңызбен бөлісу:
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