A Fresh Look at Chekhov.(Anton Chekhov)

When Chekhov lay dying in a spa town in Germany's Black Forest, his doctor ordered oxygen, only to have the playwright insist it was too late and request a bottle of champagne instead. It was a curiously appropriate end to the life of a man whom the celebrated English actor Michael Pennington describes as "a strange, eccentric, driven oddball." Now, on the eve ofthe centenary of Chekhov's death, Pennington's textured new biography, "Are You There Crocodile: Inventing Anton Chekhov" as well as U.K. revivals of two of Chekhov's best-known works- -reveals complex new layers to the Russian writer known for his use of familiar language to lay emotions bare.

Over time, Chekhov seems only to grow more relevant. He died the year before Russia's first revolution in 1905. "He was on the cusp of some extraordinary historical events," says Pennington, "and there's always a prescience [in his work], though his feet remain firmly in the 19th century." Pennington began to question his assumptions about Chekhov-- "I thought he was a sort of bourgeois writer"--during a train journey on the Trans-Siberian Railway. He discovered that almost a century before, the playwright had made the same arduous trip--while ill with tuberculosis--to investigate the treatment of inmates at the Sakhalin prison camp. "He had a tremendous passion for change," Pennington notes. "He wanted to do good."

At Manchester's Royal Exchange Theatre, director Greg Hersov went through a similar reappraisal, if his edgy production of "The Seagull" (through May 10) is any clue. To test whether the play, often considered one of Chekhov's most difficult, resonates with modern audiences, he has paired it with the world premiere of Canadian writer Brad Fraser's "Cold Meat Party," which deals with the similar themes of fame, death, art and unrequited love. It's an inspired choice, giving audiences a fresh rapport with Chekhov's classic. "You'd think that in a period play, relationships would be defined by repression," ...