I found Chekhov's plays rather flat on the page. They need actors and directors to contribute their magic in order to come alive. I suspect it's also a situation where modern drama has so completely internalized Chekhov's innovations that they no longer feel fresh.
Each play was richer than the previous one. Ivanov features a one-note title character and solid comic supporting characters. Seagull is nakedly symbolic. Uncle Vanya offers a complete cast of vivid characters. Three Sisters takes on a broader time scale. The Cherry Orchard incorporates Russian politics.
The archetypical Chekhov theme is endurance in the face of misery and disappointment.
We'll live through many long days, many long nights; we'll patiently endure all the ordeals that God sends us. We'll work for others, never knowing rest. And in our old age, when our time comes, we'll humbly die ... Then we'll look back on our present unhappiness with sadness and tenderness, and with a smile—and we will rest. (Sonya in Uncle Vanya)
In two hundred-three hundred years... we'll know a new, happy life. Well of course we won't know it in our lifetime, but for now we must live, we must work, we must suffer, and someday it will happen. That's what we're striving for, why we exist: to create future happiness. ... Happiness is not for us, but we must keep on working, working—happiness is for future generations (Vershinin in Three Sisters)
Temperamentally, the vast majority of us are crude, inept, profoundly unhappy... Only we must work. We must support those who strive for higher truth. (Trofimov in The Cherry Orchard)
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