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私が『桜の園』に異常な関心を抱いた理由は、この作品が喜劇として作られたのに、初演の時点で、早々に悲劇にされてしまったことにあるのですが、もちろんそれは単なる勘違いではなく、相当深刻な対立があった訳ですね。
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It is clear that from the play's inception, Chekhov conceived of it as a comedy. As early as 1901, when Three Sisters had just opened, Chekhov wrote to his wife, Olga Knipper, “The next play I write will definitely be funny, very funny - at least in intention.” He later wrote, “There are moments when an overwhelming desire comes over me to write a four-act farce [vodevil] or comedy for the Art Theatre.” When he had almost finished the play, he wrote to Stanislavsky's wife, Mariya Petrovna Lilina, “It hasn't turned out a drama, but as a comedy, in places even a farce.”
When Stanislavsky read it, he had a different reaction. He considered it Chekhov's best work, and wept during the reading. He wrote a long letter to Chekhov expressing his love for the play and making very clear his understanding of it:
This is not a comedy, nor a farce as you have written, this is a tragedy, whatever escape toward a better life you open up in the last act . . . I wept like a woman, I wanted to control myself but I couldn't. I hear what you say: “Look you must realize this is a farce” . . . no, for simple men this is a tragedy. I feel a special tenderness and love for this play.
http://www.cambridge.org/us/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=9780521825931&ss=exc
瀬沼夏葉はcomedyとしての性格をきちんと押えていますが、１００年たった今でもtragedyと思っている人が多いようで、なかなか難しい作品ですね。
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