The great "The" drought of 2011 has already claimed the definite article from The School for Scandal and The Government Inspector and now Chekhov is next to suffer from this cruel deprivation as the Arcola stages a new version of The Seagull. While I'm not a huge Chekhov fan I seem to get on with this play better than most and Joseph Blatchley's is ( Read more... )

Last year's Olivier-winning White Guard director/designer team of Howard Davies and Bunny Christie reunite at the National, at the Olivier this time to launch this year's Travelex season with Chekhov's last, most overtly political play. Zoë Wanamaker is the big name and doesn't disappoint, although as star vehicles go Ranyevskaya is a relatively ( Read more... )

Much as I've accepted that I'll never get too excited about Chekhov, I'd never actually seen a production of Uncle Vanya so off I went to the dreaded new Studio 1 at the Arcola, where Helena Kaut-Howson directs a version by herself and Jon Strickland, who also plays the title role. Although not enough to convert me into a fan it's one of the better ( Read more... )

It's all gone a bit Russian for me at the theatre lately. In Dan Rebellato's Chekhov in Hell the playwright's death was in fact just the start of a century-long coma. Chekhov (Simon Scardifield) wakes up from it in present-day Britain and after a mix-up at the hospital is allowed to wander off into the modern world, horrified by the world he sees. ( Read more... )

There seems to be a minor Tennessee Williams revival going on at the moment. After last year's Donmar Streetcar and Broadway transfer Cat, a couple of lesser-known pieces, which I'm ending up seeing within a week of each other. First up a real curiosity, The Notebook of Trigorin. Written a couple of years before his death, it's an adaptation of ( Read more... )

At University we once had a project to rewrite Mother Courage in the style of Chekhov, and The Cherry Orchard in the style of Brecht, so a production of a Chekhov play that uses a very Brechtian staging doesn't so much feel jarring to me as bring back memories. Sean Holmes and Filter's production of Three Sisters uses a bare stage, modern dress and ( Read more... )

Back in June I was a bit underwhelmed by The Winter's Tale but the other half of Sam Mendes' inaugural year of The Bridge Project is Chekhov's final play, and The Cherry Orchard worked a lot better for me, largely helped by a witty new version of the text by Tom Stoppard. Anthony Ward's fairly bare set also seems more suited to this story, ( Read more... )

The Donmar Warehouse opens its year-long residency at Wyndham's with Kenneth Branagh as Chekhov's Hamlet-inspired Ivanov (and will come full circle at the end of the season with Branagh directing Jude Law in Hamlet.) Of course, this being early Chekhov, it's less "To be or not to be" and more "Ah, fuck it, Not To Be ( Read more... )