ANNA: May be…
KNIPPER: Anna, I will tell you my story… but it’s a long story… you have to be patient… sip some tea… (
Marriage became the only honorable thing for me! Our new theatre needs in own dramaturg and Nemirovich decided that it would be best if I married Chekhov…That, I thought I could do… I made many trips to Yalta. Then, after two years, I suddenly refused to go. I wrote him, “You have such a sensitive soul. You should understand why I can’t come any more.” After some to-ing and fro-ing, he finally proposed. (
ANNA: After your marriage you were happy?
KNIPPER: I didn’t know that greater problems had just begun…
ANNA: What kind problems?
KNIPPER: Different. You see Anton’s sister Masha was against our marriage, her mother too…
ANNA: Why do you suppose?
KNIPPER: I think they were afraid that Anton would go to Moscow, where his health would quickly become worse…
ANNA: Wasn’t Chekhov very jealous of you? I don’t understand.
KNIPPER: Our relations were very strange… I didn’t understand Anton either… Nobody could understand us… He once said: “A wife is like the moon. You appreciate her more when you don’t have to see her every night”…(
ANNA: Not happy, to have a child with Chekhov?
KNIPPER: Dearie! It’s not so easy to get pregnant with him living in Yalta and me in Moscow…(
ANNA: You became pregnant? But you don’t have any children…
KNIPPER: Oh, it’s another story…
ANNA: Please tell me… I’m very curious…
KNIPPER: It’s a long story too…
ANNA: Please go on..
KNIPPER: Anton and I didn’t see each other for about four months. It was winter. Nemirovich finally gave me permission to go to Yalta. Complete solitude for a week. Then… after a month back in Moscow I was on the operating table… (
I wrote Anton that I had a miscarriage. He didn’t believe me. Anton found out from the surgeon and that the embryo had not developed in my womb but in a fallopian tube. And– that I’d been at least eight weeks pregnant!
ANNA: Why didn’t you write Anton the truth?
KNIPPER: Why upset him? Eight weeks earlier I had been in Moscow! Not Yalta.
ANNA: Ah! Your quick trip in the middle of the theater season! (
(
KNIPPER: Anna, what’s the matter?
ANNA: Why didn’t you tell Anton the truth about your pregnancy?
KNIPPER: I didn’t want to upset him… Both Anton and I wanted a child…
ANNA (
KNIPPER: I’m a great actress!
ANNA: I’d better go… I have to talk with Vadim…
KNIPPER: The lesson is not over!
ANNA: Vadim knows that I went to the doctor…
KNIPPER: You’ll have enough time to speak with Vadim… Sit down… Anna, I want you to practice just one final moment. It’s when Ranevskaya is leaving the estate;
АNNA: I better will read you another monologue.
KNIPPER: Good, I’m listen you.
АNNA: «Я – чайка! Нет, не то… Помните, как подстрелили чайку?
Случайно пришел человек, увидел и от нечего делать
погубил. Сюжет для небольшого рассказа… Не то… О
чем я? Я говорю о сцене… Я – актриса! Теперь уж я не
такая… Я настоящая актриса, я играю с наслаждением,
с восторгом, пьянею на сцене и чувствую себя прекрасной»…
КНИППЕР: Excellent! Why did you chose this monologue?
АNNA: I’ m feeling like the heroine from this play.
KNIPPER: Excellent! Anna, listen, your idealism and naivety are out of place… You should know life deals a heavy hand, especially to an actress. (
ANNA: Straight…
KNIPPER: Exactly. I’m 85 years old. I’ve survived two revolutions, two world wars, a civil war, and Stalin…If you are serious about being an actress, be ready to sacrifice your private life…
ANNA: Did you really want children?
KNIPPER: We didn’t have time… He was only 44 when he died.
ANNA: What do you advise me?
KNIPPER: I didn’t finish my story… Sit down… Have tea…
(
Listen… Our theater was growing in stature, it helped the people to think about their own lives. It was an uncertain time… Time before revolution… But in spite of this people were standing in lines, the whole night in winter, to buy tickets for our theater…
ANNA: Olga Leonardovna, you were lucky to have taken part in the creation of the Moscow Art Theater… to have given people meaningful entertainment… but…
