acher, married to MASHA (20)
ALEXANDER IGNATEYEVITCH VERSHININ, lieutenant-colonel in charge of
a battery (42)
NICOLAI LVOVITCH TUZENBACH, baron, lieutenant in the army (30)
VASSILI VASSILEVITCH SOLENI, captain
IVAN ROMANOVITCH CHEBUTIKIN, army doctor (60)
ALEXEY PETROVITCH FEDOTIK, sub-lieutenant
VLADIMIR CARLOVITCH RODE, sub-lieutenant
FERAPONT, door-keeper at local council offices, an old man
ANFISA, nurse (80)

The action takes place in a provincial town.

[Ages are stated in brackets.]

ACT I

[In PROSOROV'S house. A sitting-room with pillars; behind is seen a
large dining-room. It is midday, the sun is shining brightly outside. In
the dining-room the table is being laid for lunch.]

[OLGA, in the regulation blue dress of a teacher at a girl's high
school, is walking about correcting exercise books; MASHA, in a black
dress, with a hat on her knees, sits and reads a book; IRINA, in white,
stands about, with a thoughtful expression.]

OLGA. It's just a year since father died last May the fifth, on your
name-day, Irina. It was very cold then, and snowing. I thought I would
never survive it, and you were in a dead faint. And now a year has
gone by and we are already thinking about it without pain, and you are
wearing a white dress and your face is happy. [Clock strikes twelve] And
the clock struck just the same way then. [Pause] I remember that there
was music at the funeral, and they fired a volley in the cemetery. He
was a general in command of a brigade but there were few people present.
Of course, it was raining then, raining hard, and snowing.

IRINA. Why think about it!

[BARON TUZENBACH, CHEBUTIKIN and SOLENI appear by the table in the
dining-room, behind the pillars.]

OLGA. It's so warm to-day that we can keep the windows open, though the
birches are not yet in flower. Father was put in command of a brigade,
and he rode out of Moscow with us eleven years ago. I remember perfectly
that it was early in May and that everything in Moscow was flowering
then. It was warm too, everything was bathed in sunshine. Eleven years
have gone, and I remember everything as if we rode out only yesterday.
Oh, God! When I awoke this morning and saw all the light and the spring,
joy entered my heart, and I longed passionately to go home.

CHEBUTIKIN. Will you take a bet on it?

TUZENBACH. Oh, nonsense.

[MASHA, lost in a reverie over her book, whistles softly.]