The Dangers of Tobacco and the Proposal

A romance is scuppered and a marriage goes up in smoke in this double-bill of “Chekhov: Comedy Shorts.” One of Anton Chekhov's earliest plays, "The Dangers of Tobacco," sees Steve Coogan as a hen-pecked husband who, at his wife's insistence, delivers a speech about the dangers of smoking. But his focus soon strays, and we learn of his miserable life under her thumb. First performed in 1890, “The Proposal” is a fast-paced play featuring a nervous hypochondriac who visits his neighbor to ask for her hand in marriage. They find themselves in a circle of petty disagreements and an unstoppable bout of one-upmanship. “Gavin & Stacey” duo Mathew Horne and Sheridan Smith star.