Why did the Moscow Art Theatre emphasize subtext in Anton Chekhov’s plays?

The Moscow Art Theatre emphasized subtext in Anton Chekhov’s plays because it was essential to capturing the playwright’s unique form of artistic realism. Chekhov’s works are characterized by a "theatre of inaction," where the drama is not found in complex plots but in the day-to-day lives of his characters.123

By focusing on the subtext—the underlying meaning of the playwright’s thoughts—the theatre was able to reveal the great emotional complexity hidden beneath the surface of seemingly trivial events. This approach allowed the Moscow Art Theatre to move away from the artificial, stylized conventions of the 19th century and instead achieve a "truthfulness" in acting that prioritized the characters' inner worlds. Through this method, the company successfully rendered the psychological patterns and secret motives that Chekhov probed in his writing, establishing a new standard for naturalistic performance.1245