TCG - American Theatre - Eyes Wide Shut

Barilla over at the IBP forums points us to this artice in American Theatre:

TCG - American Theatre - Eyes Wide Shut

His legacy is certain. His plays, however, remain open to interpretation. He himself notoriously insisted that The Seagull and The Cherry Orchard were "gay, lighthearted, comedies," but this was ignored by Stanislavsky, who directed the plays, according to Chekhov, as "weepy." The two men were often at loggerheads as a result. The premiere production of The Cherry Orchard, rehearsing in Moscow while the playwright withered in Yalta, gave Chekhov his final chance to decry what he saw as Stanislavky's enduring misinterpretation of his work. As his strength evanesced, he roused himself, fired up his pen and dashed off acid-tinged missives that warned Stanislavsky against employing his familiar, cloying theatrical tricks. These usually involved the offstage sounds of dogs barking, birds singing and frogs croaking. Early in their collaboration, an exasperated Chekhov even exclaimed, "I shall write a new play and the first words will be, 'It's wonderful, this calm! No birds, no dogs, no cuckoos, no owls, no nightingales, no clocks, no sleigh bells, no crickets.'"

I've always thought Chekov was funny.
I hope we get to see new translations/adaptations of everything.