The Black Monk – Anton Chekhov

National Theatre of Greece, Experimental Stage — Foyer

2004-2005 Season

First performance: December 15, 2004

Last performance: April 14, 2005

On July 28, 1893, Chekhov informed A. S. Suvorin that he had written a short novella. Suvorin’s proposal to publish it in Novoye Vremya was declined by the author (in a letter dated August 18). Chekhov described this work as a “medical novella” as it presented “a young man suffering from delusions of grandeur” (from letters to M.O. Menshikov on January 15, 1894, and to Suvorin on December 15, 1893). Responding to Suvorin’s assertion that the author was describing his own mental state in The Black Monk, Chekhov wrote to him on January 25, 1894: “When the writer depicts a sick person it does not mean he is sick himself… Just wanted to portray a man suffering from delusions of grandeur. The image of a monk riding in the fields came to me in a dream, and as I woke up I told about to Misha”.

From A. P. Chekhov. Selected Works, translated by Giannis Styliatis, Volume I, Kedros 1998.