Shipley Little Theatre brings Chekhov's Gun to Ilkley Playhouse

Chekhov’s best-know plays, The Seagull, Uncle Vanya, Three Sisters and The Cherry Orchard are, of course, dramatic staples the world over. However, this production sees three of his lesser-known works brought to the stage: A Tragedian in Spite of Himself; On the Harmful Effects of Tobacco (shortened here to Tobacco); and The Bear (rechristened The Debt.

The show’s title is derived from the principle of ‘Chekhov’s Gun’, a theatrical maxim by which Chekhov suggested that every element of a story’s narrative should be necessary and irreplaceable. “If you say in the first chapter that there is a rifle hanging on the wall, in the second or third chapter it absolutely must go off. If it’s not going to be fired, it shouldn’t be hanging there.”

The gun is also prevalent in all three pieces, whether as a literal firearm, or the many smoking guns gradually revealed in Tobacco.

Formed in 2016, Shipley Little Theatre (SLT) is a community company made up of professionals and non-professionals, aiming to produce inclusive, entertaining, challenging and engaging theatre. SLT also run a Small Productions Company, created to produce noted and challenging theatrical pieces that require smaller casts. Gun is the inaugural production of this company.

Mike Farren, co-producer of Chekhov’s Gun and director of The Debt, said, “This production challenges our perceptions of Chekhov, featuring elements of farce, black comedy and romantic comedy, but everything bears the hallmark of his theatrical mastery. It promises and evening that is, by turns, amusing, darkly intense and laugh-out-loud funny. Chekhov as you have probably never seen him before!”

His fellow producer Patrick Thornton, who directed the first of the pieces, A Tragedian in Spite of Himself, added, “I think people will be really positively surprised by this. I’m almost loath to say this because I’m enjoying seeing how our audience have had their preconceptions hit for six. Chekhov has something of a reputation for tragedy and laced subtext, and while these pieces still contain both, they are, ultimately, just daft vignettes containing a bunch of erudite idiots.”

While the source material is over a century old, the producers believe that SLT are offering something which speaks to contemporary audiences. “The erudite idiot seems particularly relevant for the turbulent times we’re currently living through,” says Thornton, “I’m pleased that we’ve not just shovelled a theatrical staple up for the sake of itself and that it’s holding up a mirror – albeit perhaps one from a funfair – to modern life. There’s also a lot of men whining about how they are oppressed and emasculated by the women in their lives, which is even more ludicrous in the 1890s than it is now.”