Good things come in threes. Three bears; three little pigs; three fairies; three acts of a play; three 99s arriving at once after you’ve been waiting for 20 minutes. Now add Chekhov comedies to the list.

Local performing arts group the Smoking Gun Collective (whose previous productions include An Inspector Calls and The Cherry Orchard) are currently set up in the Jericho Arts Centre with Troika: a triplet of quick comedies that promises to be “Chekhov as you have not seen it.” 

While best-known for his dour dramas about Russians yearning for a sense of purpose in life (and the dramatic necessity of gun-shaped plot elements), Chekhov was also an accomplished writer of short stories and one-act vaudevillian farces. Lovers quarrel, spouses hate each other, parents misunderstand their children, and those misunderstandings escalate—standard dramatic stuff, honestly, but played for laughs rather than harrowing despair.

Troika takes three of these best-known short japes and runs them back-to-back.

The Proposal follows a farmer’s attempt to propose marriage to his neighbour’s daughter and the chaos that ensues. On The Harmful Effects of Tobacco is a one-man monologue detailing the horrors of tobacco, as delivered by a harried chain-smoker. And rounding out the performances, The Bear depicts a lovelorn widow arguing with a landowner about her late husband’s debt. 

Helmed by veteran director William B. Davis, see why Chekhov’s plays still hold their appeal over 100 years later. The classics are beloved for a reason!

Troika 

When: Until November 12; Tuesdays and Saturdays at 8pm, Saturdays and Sundays at 2pm

Where: Jericho Arts Centre, 1675 Discovery Street, Vancouver

Admission: $35, available here