Chekhov Was Bored Too

The best part and valid part of Don Shirley’s review of “The Wood Demon” was his first paragraph (“Fighting a Chekhovian ‘Demon’ at the Taper,” April 8). Ah, if only Shirley had stopped there and accepted Chekhov’s honesty, disappointment and disgust at having written a most talkative, boring play, a play that crawled on for more than three hours. The Chekhov experience was a sleeper, literally.

I am not critical of the acting and staging--that was competent--but being competent with a production that created a verbal sedative is not enough. Before the end of the third act, almost half of the audience was asleep and most of the others had gone home.

By the way, the headline could be accepted as valid--”Fighting a Chekhovian ‘Demon’ at the Taper.” Yes, the audience was fighting the “Demon” as long as it could, as long as it could keep its eyes open, and then, of course, it lost the fight.

ARTHUR SARNA

Sherman Oaks