In the intense intellectual activity of the last fifteen years of his life, Anton Chekhov crafted his one-act plays alongside his multi-act works, like theatrical exercises that reached the level of perfection.

Alongside Trigorin, Astrov, Masha Prokhoreva, Lopakhin, or Petya, were born the hilarious figures of Elena Popova and Grigory Smirnov, Tokalchov, Fyodor Revunov-Karaulov, or the director of the "Mutual Credit Society," Andrei Spiyuchin, culminating finally in the tragic figure of Nyukin amidst the harmful effects of smoke.

Characters tasked with mocking the established order of the petty-bourgeois and middle-class society of Russia and questioning the morals of a useless hierarchy.