Q 01/05

Besides writing, what was Anton Chekhov's profession?

A) Lawyer

B) Physician

C) Priest

D) Army officer

Answer · why

B) Physician

"Medicine is my lawful wife," he said, "and literature is my mistress."

Q 02/05

In which port city on the Sea of Azov was Chekhov born in 1860?

A) Odessa

B) Taganrog

C) Rostov

D) Sevastopol

Answer · why

B) Taganrog

His father ran a grocery store there and directed the parish choir.

Q 03/05

The Seagull was booed at its St Petersburg premiere in what year?

A) 1893

B) 1896

C) 1890

D) 1887

Answer · why

B) 1896

The Moscow Art Theatre revived it triumphantly two years later.

Q 04/05

Which director's Moscow Art Theatre revived The Seagull in 1898?

A) Vsevolod Meyerhold

B) Konstantin Stanislavski

C) Yevgeny Vakhtangov

D) Sergei Eisenstein

Answer · why

B) Konstantin Stanislavski

His focus on psychological realism and ensemble playing drew out the text's buried subtleties.

Q 05/05

The dramatic principle that a rifle shown on the wall must eventually fire is known as what?

A) Ibsen's lamp

B) Chekhov's gun

C) Occam's razor

D) Strindberg's knife

Answer · why

B) Chekhov's gun

Chekhov meant that every element of a story must be necessary and the rest removed.