The Swan song by Anton Chekhov

The curtain rises in an old theatre, the audience and the cleaning women have all gone home. It is dark and musty and the stage has been cleared of all scenery. There is silence. Then a candlelight appears, illuminating a face…it is the face of The Actor, rouged, lined and old. The Actor encounters someone else, the Theatre Prompter, who becomes an unwilling audience and the two men share each other’s loneliness on the darkened stage. Adapted from Chekhov’s 1886 stage version of his short story, the film illustrates the adaptability of the short story form to a moving, audiovisual experience.

Credits

producer/director

Claude Woolman

production company

Cinerep Productions

Duration

00:24:55:00

Production places

United States

Production dates

1971

Collection metadata

ACMI Identifier

29130

Language

English

Subject categories

Adaptations

Literature → Literature

Literature → Russian literature - Film and video adaptations

Literature → Short stories

Music & Performing Arts → Acting - Drama

Music & Performing Arts → Performing arts

Music & Performing Arts → Theater - Soviet Union

Short films

Short films → Short films - Soviet Union

Short films → Short films - United States

Sound/audio

Sound

Colour

Holdings

16mm film; Access Print (Section 1)

Please note: this archive is an ongoing body of work. Sometimes the credit information (director, year etc) isn’t available so these fields may be left blank; we are progressively filling these in with further research.

Cite this work on Wikipedia

If you would like to cite this item, please use the following template: {{cite web |url=https://acmi.net.au/works/73411--the-swan-song-by-anton-chekhov/ |title=The Swan song by Anton Chekhov |author=Australian Centre for the Moving Image |access-date=24 July 2021 |publisher=Australian Centre for the Moving Image}}

United States, 1971

Please note