Get out the popcorn. It's November.

Weather note: It's been unseasonably warm here for the last couple of days, and just now, I spotted an anomaly in my backyard: a lone dandelion, peeking out of the grass near the side porch. Go figure. In spite of which, we're going to go on and celebrate the culture of the land of snow and ice.

Today, you're going to appreciate Russian culture. Like it or not. We'll give you a little help from some top-flight US stage actors. But first, a little mood music.

Today's Short Subject: What Russian song is more mood-evoking than Ochi Chernye? This guy is supercool and he knows it. Bet he makes all the ladies swoon. When I was a kid, we sang this in English as 'Dark-eyed Russian girl, with your skirts awhirl, come and dance for me, to this melody, in your steps you go, swaying to and fro, fire that never dies in your somber eyes.' Oh, brother. Now that's a Russian mood.

So you're ready for some Chekhov. Do you like that series A Young Doctor's Notebook? I do. It's pretty wild. Like that hero, Chekhov was a doctor. He was also a hard-working writer because he had a large, dysfunctional family to support. A common story in Tsarist Russia. His first big play hit was this one, but he wrote it in Russian, of course.

Today's Feature Film: There are these gems from the early 1970s called 'Great Performances', in which notable actors took a Broadway or play festival success and filmed it in a suitable setting. They are wonderful accomplishments, and many of them star Blythe Danner and Frank Langella, who were young and mesmerising at the time. They're still mesmerising, but they're aging gracefully. Anyway, you'll like The Seagull. In addition to Langella (who shoots himself, twice, talk about Chekhov's gun) and Danner (who does that thing she does, being vulnerable and wild and fey), there's Kevin McCarthy of Invasion of the Body Snatchers fame, the redoubtable Olympia Dukakis, and that woman from Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman. It's quite a cast, and they do a good job with Chekhov's difficult, indirect story.

You see, most of the 'action' takes place offstage. We don’t see the lake, but it's there. We don't see anybody shoot a seagull, for which PETA is grateful. We don't see anybody get shot, wow. We don't see kissing, or sex, but there's a lot of that going on, too. How in the world can you make a play where there's no onstage action? Chekhov pulls it off. And it's pretty powerful. You might be surprised at just how big the world of that play is: city life, farms, even horses, all offstage. But somehow, they're there.

You may not become a convert to the world of late 19th-century Russian drama by watching this, but I think you'll find it enjoyable. I can always watch Danner and Langella, they have such chemistry together, whether they're at the dacha or down in Mississippi with Tennessee Williams.