The Bear (1888) and The Marriage Proposal (1889), the best of Chekhov's early one-act farces or "curtain raisers," tap the purely comic and make an interesting contrast to his more complex and subtle comedies like The Cherry Orchard.

Miss Julie (1888), an early naturalistic drama by August Strindberg, investigates the tragic consequences of breaking class barriers in the sexual liaison of Miss Julie and her father's valet, Jean.

The Three Sisters, Chekhov's immediate predecessor to The Cherry Orchard, was first performed at the Moscow Art Theatre in 1901. Another play of minimal action, it introduces characters who, like those in the later play, suffer from an inertia of the will.

Heartbreak House (1916), George Bernard Shaw's iconoclastic comedy, shares Chekhov's thematic interest in the breakdown of social norms based on class distinctions. Hesione Hushabye's country house, the play's setting, is a place where artificial conventions...