The performance was produced in 1965 on the stage of the Vakhtangov Theatre by stage director A. I. Remizova. The drama shown on the stage is not invented — during many years it was stored in letters of these people. The letters reveal something that was hidden deep — the sense of their relationship. This performance is a confession, a story about something deeply personal, a performance of a high artistic state where beating of living human hearts can be heard, but it also shows us the social drama of the writer — and the Russian life contemporary to Chekhov comes to the foreground.

The performance has a strict, almost concert-like form and is imbued with a spirit of deep respect for our national genius. Yury Yakovlev creates an image which is complex and many-sided. In Chekhov’s drama he allows us to see the features common to destinies of Russian talents. In the first moment, the actor is perceived as a medium between the writer who lived long ago and the contemporary spectator. But later the internal resemblance of the actor with the character is caught more and more, and by the end of the performance they are impossible to separate from each other. The role performer is gradually merged with the role itself, and this is a highest mystery and triumph of the art of acting. The distinctness of the performance and its inimitable charm become especially perceptible when Yu. Borisova appears on the stage in the role of Lika Mizinova. Only a great master can so laconically and at the same time eloquently narrate a complicated story of woman’s soul to the spectator, with its contradictions, failure to tell all, might-have-been dreams and hopes. The performance can be legitimately called Chekhovian.