By no means are we purists — we like the idea (though not always the execution) of color-blind casting; we enjoy chopping up and pasting back together canonical texts; and any play performed by puppets piques our interest — but as far as the dense family networks and difficult humor of Anton Chekhov, we're staring to think that maybe it makes more sense in Russian. We'll get to test that theory when St. Petersburg's Maly Drama Theatre visits BAM to produce Chekhov's trademark comedy-turned-tragic in Russian, with English titles, for just five performances.