Time in Chekhov's plays passes between the acts – not as a functional necessity, but as part of an irresistible rhythm which fascinated the dramatist, and obsessed his characters. Time for Chekhov was neither a metaphysical concept nor a thematic convenience, but the shared perspective through which humankind reconciled its hopes and fears – or failed to do so. Jovan Hristic looks in detail at the treatment of time in Chekhov's major plays, and illuminates on the one hand its role in creating an almost classical sense of inevitability – and on the other at its ability to reduce the apparently momentous to the ironically trivial. This article is taken from his full-length study, Chekhov the Dramatist, already translated into French, and originally published in Belgrade. where he works as a leading theatre critic.