Resurrection as Adaptation: (Re)Makes, Deconstructions and the Gun

Abstract

This chapter focused on two types of adaptations/resurrections—those that are centred on (re)making of the authorial figure and those that engage with his/her deconstruction. It explores (re)making and deconstruction of the author mostly through works in which Chekhov appears in various forms—from that of a protagonist to that of a mere intertextual and interperformative reference—including Marina Carr’s biographical play about Chekhov Sixteen Possible Glimpses and Raymond Carver’s short story Running Errands that focuses on the moments of Chekhov’s death, as well as Howard Barker’s deconstruction (Uncle) Vanya, and Dead Centre’s iconoclastic performance Chekhov’s Last Play. Tim Crouch’s quasi-biographical play about a pair of American artists Adler and Gibb does not feature Chekhov in any shape or form, but it dramatizes the mechanisms and processes underling the construction of the authorial figure through the devices of narrative, embodiment, enactment and theatrical semiotics.