by Andreea Telehoi, photo: Augustina Iohan
Before the performance of “The Bear”, directed by Okbaoui Cheikh from the Massini Cultural Association for Performing Arts Adrar in Algeria, presented on the evening of June 7 as part of the BABEL Festival in Târgoviște, a phrase spoken during the opening remarks deeply resonated with the audience: “Chekhov is universal. Putin is not.”
The Algerian troupe aimed, through their staging of this text — profoundly infused with the Russian spirit present in all of Chekhov’s works — to present their culture and convey a message about their own civilization.
Being a one-act play, with a tightly packed structure and a relatively short running time, The Bear is a challenging piece. Chekhov himself said that his plays are comedies. While in the case of some of his works we might treat this statement with skepticism, the humor in The Bear is much more apparent.
The conflict seems simple at first glance:
A man named Smirnov (played by Sofiane Mihoubi) wants to reclaim money he lent to another man. His misfortune? The man is dead.
The widow, Popova (Djedjiga Makhmoukhen), dignified and steadfast in her mourning, refuses to return the sum.
But the real trouble lies elsewhere: from quarrel to quarrel, in a fierce competition of pride and stubbornness, the two donkeys fall in love. That’s when the true conflict begins.
Okbaoui Cheikh builds his production starting from Chekhov’s text but adds several personal touches. In the play, a horse named Toby is mentioned — the deceased husband’s horse. In this staging, the director transforms this symbolic presence, originally used to reflect the stages of Popova’s grief, into a fully embodied character.
Toby becomes the physical manifestation of the dead husband, appearing at key moments in the protagonists’ emotional evolution.
In addition, the director reimagines Luka (Mohamed Iefkir), Popova’s servant — who, in Chekhov’s version, is an elderly man — as a clever and mischievous young trickster. He plays a kind of Puck or Spiridon, silently supporting the love drama unfolding before him, despite his mistress’s pleas to rid her of the “bear” who’s stirring both her spirit and her heart, long promised to eternal mourning.
The icing on the cake is a newly added scene, inserted right in the middle of the tension, just before the pistol duel — the emotional climax — when the ghost of the late husband appears, demanding answers from Popova about her betrayal. But it’s already too late. What’s said is not what’s truly being said.
And not even this apparition from beyond can stop the snowball effect.
Sadly for Toby (Remdani Abdelwahab), symbols of the past must be cleared away to make room for new beginnings. After all, his oats were the very catalyst of this entire mess.
The North African atmosphere that the director sought to integrate is best expressed through the live interludes performed by two Algerian musicians (Zakaria Zajlou and Adil Hamdaoui), who play a variety of instruments from their culture during the show.
In a surreal twist, Toby makes his entrances and exits in traditional North African dance steps, further rooting the performance in its cultural identity and giving it a distinctive flair.
The play, under Okbaoui Cheikh’s direction, creates a humorous balance between mystical elements and realistic tones.
The director leans into the comedy of the conflict, even though — at its core — the characters are driven by real wounds:
Popova was betrayed by the man to whom she gave everything, and Smirnov, despite his efforts, has been disappointed by love countless times.
However, the way these repressed emotions manifest is undeniably ridiculous — and therefore comic.
After all, the greatest truths are often best told through laughter.
