Platonov

(Paperback, Main)

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An original six-hour work by Chekhov, brilliantly distilled into a three-hour play by David Hare. 'What Platonov does have, in its very wildness, is a sort of feverish ambition, a desire, almost, to put the whole of Russia on the stage, while at the same time focussing comically on one of its most sophisticated victims.' Platonov, in David Hare's translation, will premiere at the Almeida Theatre in 2001.

Reviews

"Once again, we are shown a great writer who is funnier, more exuberant, and more wildly romantic than anyone expects as "Hare . . . demonstrates why Chekhov is one of theatre's great dramatists"--Michael Billington, "The Guardian"

Author Bio

Anton Chekhov, Russian dramatist and short-story writer, was born in 1860, the son of a grocer and the grandson of a serf. After graduating in medicine from Moscow University in 1884, he began to make his name in the theatre with the one-act comedies The Bear, The Proposal and The Wedding. His earliest full-length plays, Ivanov (1887) and The Wood Demon (1889), were not successful, and The Seagull, produced in 1896, was a failure until a triumphant revival by the Moscow Art Theatre in 1898. This was followed by Uncle Vanya (1899), Three Sisters (1901) and The Cherry Orchard (1904), shortly after the production of which Chekhov died. The first English translations of his plays were performed within five years of his death. David Hare has written over thirty stage plays and thirty screenplays for film and television. The plays include Plenty, Pravda (with Howard Brenton), The Secret Rapture, Racing Demon, Skylight, Amy's View, The Blue Room, Via Dolorosa, Stuff Happens, The Absence of War, The Judas Kiss, The Red Barn, The Moderate Soprano, I'm Not Running and Beat the Devil. For cinema, he has written The Hours, The Reader, Damage, Denial, Wetherby and The White Crow among others, while his television films include Licking Hitler, the Worricker Trilogy, Collateral and Roadkill. In a millennial poll of the greatest plays of the twentieth century, five of the top hundred were his.