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Mostly the four plays presented here from Chekhov read like a subtle satire of other near-contemporary Russian authors. For me, I couldn't help thinking of Fyodor Dostoyevskyalmost the whole time. Chekhov's mostly straight-faced irony is entertaining and insightful as well. He clearly has a good grasp on human nature, a must in a successful playwright. However, by saddling himself to mocking other Russian authors of the period, he locks himself into nothing but the world of cash-poor aristocracy, their cash-poor middle class friends, and their half-starved servants and former serfs. They all seem to be tangled in love triangles, angst and nervous breakdowns over mostly nothing, and any variety of self-destructive or otherwise anti-social behavior. Chekhov was bold enough to put an actual rich man in Cherry Orchard--naturally, the descendent of a former serf (like Chekhov himself). One almost wonders, when reading Chekhov or other Russian authors of the period, with everybody broke and in debt up to their eyeballs, who does the lending? Now we know...
The dialogue is snappy, a bit like Ernest Hemingway, it really is the best part (and one would hope so in a play!). Often, the characters are made to say things earnestly and sincerely that Chekhov clearly means to be funny to his audience. The fact that these are modest stories about ordinary people is not off-putting to me, many great stories have been told through the medium of the ordinary. But alas, Chekhov pulls off no such triumph. There are moments in each of the plays that are humorous, or touching, or that reveal some eternal truth of human nature. But one does not walk away from any of these works saying, "Wow, that really changed me," or, "I have to read/watch that one again!"
All in all, good fun, each has its moments. I liked the Seagull the best, Chekhov seemed to be trying too hard in Cherry Orchard and falling into some of the very idioms he elsewhere mocks. I would recommend it, but definitely don't drop whatever you're reading now just to run out and read (or watch) one of these plays.