And Worth at the time did seem a bit old to have a 17-year-old daughter, but not impossible. :)
Of course, the problem is that Chekhov originally thought of Ranevskaya as an "old lady." I believe that's how he referred to her in letters (in Russian of course). And then he realized that the MAT didn't have an appropriate old-lady actress, and his wife, in her mid-30s, was going to end up in the role. I've never read whether he rewrote the role to some degree when it was clear that Olga Knipper was going to play her, but it seems to me that in the script we have, Ranevskaya makes most sense as someone in her mid- to late 40s. |
