Three Sisters
Anton Chekhov · 1901
Three sisters stuck in a provincial town dream of returning to Moscow. They never go. Chekhov built an entire play out of thwarted desire and small talk, and somehow it's devastating. The play demonstrates his greatest trick: making ordinary unhappiness feel as large as any ancient tragedy.
The case against
Four acts of not going to Moscow: the fire happens offstage, the duel happens offstage, and Vershinin philosophizes onstage at length about happiness in two hundred years. Without actors to carry the subtext, the small talk on the page reads as exactly that. Chekhov asks you to supply the devastation yourself, and boredom is the easier donation.
Drama · the Pro canon
The case for it and the rest of the canon open with Pro.
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