Widely considered one of the world's greatest writers, Anton Pavlovich Chekhov was born on January 29, 1860, in Taganrog, Russia. In 1879 he entered the University of Moscow to study medicine and graduated in 1884. He kept a strict writing schedule and continued to practice medicine for the rest of his life. In addition to his numerous short stories, many considered masterpieces of the form, Chekhov wrote over a dozen plays, among them the classics of Western dramatic literature UNCLE VANYA, THE CHERRY ORCHARD, THE THREE SISTERS, and THE SEAGULL.

Stephen Mulrine was born in Glasgow in 1937. Educated at Glasgow University, Edinburgh, and Strathclyde Universities. MA (Hons) 1st Class, English Language & Literature. Post-grad Diploma in Russian Language. Senior Lecturer, Historical & Critical Studies, Glasgow School of Art. Fellow of the Royal Scottish Academy of Music & Drama. Following a prolific second career writing original plays for radio and television, Stephen began translating plays, mainly from Russian, in the late 1980s. Published and produced work ranges from the great 19th-century classics — Pushkin, Gogol, Turgenev, Chekhov — to contemporary drama by Gelman and Petrushevskaya. His adaptation of Yerofeev's cult 1960s novel, MOSCOW STATIONS, for whose performance in which Tom Courtenay won the London Evening Standard's Best Actor award, was staged in Edinburgh, London, and New York, and has been re-translated into several European languages. Now retired from academic life, Stephen's translations, published mainly by Nick Hern Books and Oberon Books, include versions of Ibsen, Molière, Pirandello, Strindberg, Beaumarchais, and others. English Touring Theatre has premiered his SEAGULL and CHERRY ORCHARD by Chekhov and also Ibsen's GHOSTS and JOHN GABRIEL BORKMANN. His translation of Chekhov's UNCLE VANYA for the same company was chosen by Sir Peter Hall to open the new Rose Theatre at Kingston on Thames, and his most recent work includes Ibsen's A DOLL'S HOUSE and Chekhov's SWANSONG, also for Sir Peter Hall, at the Theatre Royal, Bath.