The maps of Chekhov‘s government

There is no doubt that Eric Lacascade is very well familiar with the content of the Chekhovian canon and the attempts to break it.  He has spent many years seriously studying, sincerely going into theory, and looking for practical answers. The French director, who took on a long project at the Oskaras Koršunovas Theater with one of the most interesting and original troupes of today, is, to my mind, aware of Chekhov’s dramas, the “archaeological artifacts of the soul” hidden in their words and even punctuation marks, the “special structures of senses” etc.  He knows about the famous pauses and their cosmogonic functions in the universe of Chekhov’s plays, about the events, which do not change the situation, but only confirm that no changes are possible, about the fantasies and nostalgia as the cause and effect of the impossibility, about the fact that such a world may not have one isolated character, rising against the current order, since what matters here is the uniformly disharmonious general feeling of the crowd gathered at the table.