Young Chekhov set to launch at National Theatre
The Young Chekov trilogy opened to overwhelming acclaim at Chichester Festival Theatre last year.
The company now come to the National, offering a unique chance to explore the birth of a revolutionary dramatic voice.
The production is directed by Jonathan Kent, with set designs by Tom Pye, costumes by Emma Ryott, lighting by Mark Henderson, music by Jonathan Dove, sound by Paul Groothuis and fight direction by Paul Benzing.
Performed by one ensemble of actors, each play can be seen as a single performance over different days or as a thrilling all-day theatrical experience.
The cast includes Emma Amos, Pip Carter, Anna Chancellor, Jonathan Coy, Mark Donald, Peter Egan, Col Farrell, Beverley Klein, Adrian Lukis, Des McAleer, James McArdle, Mark Penfold, Nina Sosanya, Geoffrey Streatfeild, Sarah Twomey, David Verrey, Olivia Vinall and Jade Williams.
David Hare has written over thirty original plays, including The Power of Yes, Gethsemane, Stuff Happens, The Permanent Way (a co-production with Out of Joint), Amy’s View, Skylight, The Secret Rapture, The Absence of War, Murmuring Judges, Racing Demon, Pravda (written with Howard Brenton) and Plenty for the National Theatre.
In the first of three plays, Platonov, schoolteacher Mikhail Platonov has a problem – he’s irresistible to women.
Set in the blazing heat of a rural summer, this freewheeling comedy is a cry of youthful defiance against the compromises of middle age.
In the second, Ivanov, Nikolai Ivanov is only 35, a radical and a romantic, but already he’s feeling that he’s thrown his life away.
Determined not to become a small-town Hamlet, he hopes one last desperate romance may save him from a society rotten with anti-Semitism and drink.
This electric play is powered both by hilarious satire and passionate self-disgust.
Finally, on a summer’s day in a makeshift theatre by a lake, Konstantin’s cutting-edge new play, The Seagull, is performed, changing the lives of everyone involved forever.
Chekhov’s masterly meditation on how the old take revenge on the young is both comic and tragic, and marks the birth of the modern stage.
More Information
The National Theatre is dedicated to making the very best theatre and sharing it with as many people as possible.
The organisation creates productions on the South Bank in London each year, ranging from re-imagined classics to modern masterpieces and new work by contemporary writers and theatre-makers.
Find out more about the Young Chekov season on the official website.