The Danger of Tobacco

Summary: BBC Television production of Chekhov’s monologue The Danger of Tobacco.
Theatre play: The Danger of Tobacco by Anton Chekhov (1860-1904) [more information]
Play synopsis: The Radio Times Television Supplement (18 June 1937, p. 18) notes that ‘The scene of this monologue is a small provincial club. Ivan Ivanovitch Nyukin, whose wife keeps a boarding-school for girls, has been ordered by her to lecture on The Danger of Tobacco. After a few opening remarks he strays from the subject and becomes so excited that he tells the audience exactly what kind of life he leadsthat he has to teach all the subjects in the curriculum of his wife’s school, wash up, clean the house, and catch mice. In return, he says, he is half starved and known as "the scarecrow". He goes on to describe the dreams he used to have as a young man, his ambitions and hopes, which have now resolved themselves into one wishto run away and live alone. When his wife appears behind the platform, however, the bubble is pricked, and he finishes the lecture after begging the audience not to give him away’.
Production history: Originally published in 1868; revised by Chekhov in 1902.
Date of transmission: Thursday 24 June 1937
Time: 3.10pm (10 mins)
Channel: BBC Television
Production company: BBC

Television Presentation by

Eric Crozier (1914-1994)

Playwright

Anton Chekhov (1860-1904)

Cast

John Abbott (1905-1996)

Nyukin

Later transmissions: Broadcast again at 3.00pm and at 9.00pm on Monday 13 September 1937
Extant status: No archival copy is known to exist.
Play tags: marriage; schools, as theme or setting

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