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It’s clear… Vadim chose you to be the lead, Ranevskaia.

ANNA. Are you implying that actresses who get leading roles are the lovers of the directors?

KNIPPER: It’s in theater’s traditions…

ANNA: It’s rumored that you had a lover too? Stanislavski?

KNIPPER: Nemirovich…

ANNA: And Chekhov? He knew about… about this tradition?

KNIPPER: I believe knew. He wasn’t naïve about life.

ANNA: How did you convince him to marry you?

KNIPPER: Do you think it would be useful for you?

ANNA: May be…

KNIPPER: Anna, I will tell you my story… but it’s a long story… you have to be patient… sip some tea… (Pause)

Marriage became the only honorable thing for me! Our new theatre needs in own dramaturg and Nemirovich decided that it would be best if I married Chekhov…That, I thought I could do… I made many trips to Yalta. Then, after two years, I suddenly refused to go. I wrote him, “You have such a sensitive soul. You should understand why I can’t come any more.” After some to-ing and fro-ing, he finally proposed. (Pause) He knew that he needed me… and our theater!

ANNA: After your marriage you were happy?

KNIPPER: I didn’t know that greater problems had just begun…

ANNA: What kind problems?

KNIPPER: Different. You see Anton’s sister Masha was against our marriage, her mother too…

ANNA: Why do you suppose?

KNIPPER: I think they were afraid that Anton would go to Moscow, where his health would quickly become worse…

ANNA: Wasn’t Chekhov very jealous of you? I don’t understand.

KNIPPER: Our relations were very strange… I didn’t understand Anton either… Nobody could understand us… He once said: “A wife is like the moon. You appreciate her more when you don’t have to see her every night”…(Pause) Soon Anton wrote that he wanted a child.

ANNA: Not happy, to have a child with Chekhov?

KNIPPER: Dearie! It’s not so easy to get pregnant with him living in Yalta and me in Moscow…(Pause) But… I got pregnant!

ANNA: You became pregnant? But you don’t have any children…

KNIPPER: Oh, it’s another story…

ANNA: Please tell me… I’m very curious…

KNIPPER: It’s a long story too…

ANNA: Please go on..

KNIPPER: Anton and I didn’t see each other for about four months. It was winter. Nemirovich finally gave me permission to go to Yalta. Complete solitude for a week. Then… after a month back in Moscow I was on the operating table… (Pause)

I wrote Anton that I had a miscarriage. He didn’t believe me. Anton found out from the surgeon and that the embryo had not developed in my womb but in a fallopian tube. And– that I’d been at least eight weeks pregnant!

ANNA: Why didn’t you write Anton the truth?

KNIPPER: Why upset him? Eight weeks earlier I had been in Moscow! Not Yalta.

ANNA: Ah! Your quick trip in the middle of the theater season! (with indignation): I see you loved theater life more than you loved your famous husband…

(Anna upset throws off “Ranevckaia’s” coat, and starts to collect her belongings)

KNIPPER: Anna, what’s the matter?

ANNA: Why didn’t you tell Anton the truth about your pregnancy?

KNIPPER: I didn’t want to upset him… Both Anton and I wanted a child…