Chekov For Children

4/10 Dropps

Rating: Not Rated
Director: Sasha Waters Freyer
Writer: Phillip Lopate (story)

Chekhov for Children tells the story of renowned writer Phillp Lopate’s experiment with alternative teaching and the 1979 performance of Uncle Vanya, the 1897 play written by Anton Chekhov. Lopate’s staging ofUncle Vanya was experimental in the sense that it was a play that questions age and death, for the first time being performed solely by a cast of children. Chekhov for Children examines the kids in Lopate’s performance over 30 years after their debut on Broadway, discovering what the experience meant to them.

Interesting twist in this documentary is that director Sasha Freyer was also a student of the fifth grade class that performed Uncle Vanya, which makes sense considering her clear connection to the interviewees and her desire to make such an odd documentary. Odd in the sense that the film is practically guaranteed not to captivate a wide audience, and that not many will have heard of this performance that took place in 1979.

In Chekhov for Children, Freyer journeys around the States and to France to discover what her former classmates have been up to since the performance, and to find out how Lopate and his teaching styles influenced them in the past and with their current endeavors. Along the way, the viewer is introduced to a talent scout, a rapper, a historian, and an elusive and ultimately unintroduced mental patient.

As the film unfolds, we meet these characters through interview format and explore their takes on plays now. The viewer also learns a little about Chekhov, the influence of experimental teaching, and Lopate and his career.

Overall, the film never seems to find its niche with the audience. As they are introduced to the film’s interviewees, audiences will find themselves questioning the true connection to the filmmaker, and the overall point of her odd desire to find a connection to their past. With slow pacing and no true appeal to the viewer, Chekhov for Children is an odd choice for this year’s Florida Film Festival.

-Hunter Freiburg