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Synopsis First staged at Korsh's Russian Dramatic Theatre, Moscow, in 1887. Set in a country suffering from political, ideological and spiritual stagnation, Chekhov s first full-length play anticipates the explosive revolutionary atmosphere of Russia at the turn of the century. Ivanov, a driving force in local government and a visionary landowner, feels burnt out at thirty-five. Once the pioneer of scientific farming methods and of education for the peasants, he now drowns in bureaucracy and debt, his large estate neglected. While his wife is dying, Sasha, a young, educated woman, falls in love with Ivanov and determines to save him.
The inaugural production of the Donmar’s West End season, Ivanov, opened last night (17 September 2008, previews from 12 September)at Wyndham’s Theatre, with the stellar cast supported by an all-star audience including Judi Dench and Rosamund Pike (See Today’s 1st Night Photos).
Once a man of limitless promise, Ivanov (Branagh) is plunged into debt. His marriage is in crisis, and his evenings are spent negotiating loans, avoiding love affairs and fighting to resist the small town jealousies and intrigues which threaten to engulf his life.
Overnight critics went wild for the production, many proclaiming Branagh to be “at his best” in the title role. A raft of five-star reviews adorned this morning’s papers, getting the Donmar West End season off to a “flying start”. Grandage’s production was variously deemed “spot-on”, “richly intelligent”, “wondrous” and “just the West End ticket”, aided by Christopher Oram’s earthy design, Adam Cork’s “terrific” score and Paule Constable’s “exquisite” lighting. Amongst the supporting cast, Tom Hiddleston’s “priggish” doctor, Andrea Riseborough’s “sexily impetuous” Sasha and Gina Mckee’s “beautiful” portrayal of Ivanov’s Jewish wife Anna were highly praised, but there were no weak links amongst the ensemble. All round then, it appears that Ivanov is the new “must see” in the West End.
Michael Coveney on Whatsonstage.com (five stars) – “Now the brutish comedy and callowness of Chekhov’s first play – overlooked by the playwright’s best English translator, Michael Frayn – makes it seem just the West End ticket. And the Donmar season at Wyndham’s is off to a flying start with Michael Grandage’s scorching production, Kenneth Branagh’s meticulous and moving performance as the gentleman farmer swimming in debts and despair, and Tom Stoppard’s clinical, idiomatic new version. I’ve rarely felt heat like it in the theatre, even without the air-conditioning … Branagh has never been better, making no bones about Ivanov’s horrible anti-semitism and the utter futility of his situation. Unlike Gielgud, of course, he doesn’t ask you to like him for a moment. The play hurtles by, hitting its four curtain climaxes with an almost shocking intensity. What was that about not too much serious drama going on in the West End?”
Michael Billington in the Guardian (five stars) – “ The cheering news is that Tom Stoppard's new version of Chekhov's early play, directed by Michael Grandage and starring Kenneth Branagh, is everything one could hope for: not just another Chekhov revival but a richly intelligent rethink of a play that's actually had six major outings in the last 43 years … What Grandage's production brilliantly provides is the dual perspective that was to become Chekhov's trademark: above all, it reminds us that it is perfectly possible, as Uncle Vanya later proved, to be ridiculous and tragic at the same time. Branagh's Ivanov is alert to his own absurdity, at one point telling Sasha he's turned into ‘a hangdog parody of a literary cliche, the superfluous man’ … Andrea Riseborough as Sasha is both sexily impetuous and a collector of doomed souls. Malcolm Sinclair shows Ivanov's uncle to be a posturing cynic and a lonely widower. And Tom Hiddleston as the accusatory doctor emerges as a well-intentioned prig. But everything about this production is first-rate, from the mossy decay surrounding Ivanov's estate in Christopher Oram's design to the melancholy, tolling bells in Adam Cork's sound design.”
Nicholas de Jongh in the Evening Standard (four stars) – “Not for many years has there been a more exciting invasion of London's commercial theatre world than the one launched last night in triumph by Michael Grandage … This Ivanov is coloured with the elements of black comedy, glancing satire and tragedy. Thanks to the director and to the vivid eloquence of Tom Stoppard's new version, which is marred by occasional, glaring modernities, a strong impression is conveyed of provincial Russia where boredom, malice, sadness and selfish egocentricity is soothed by alcohol and almost Beckettian parties. Notes of anti-semitism disquietingly resound as well. Christopher Oram's design brilliantly sets the stridently sombre mood, shrouding the view of Ivanov's estate in mist and nothing but bare earth … The starrily talented Branagh strikes me as fundamentally miscast. His Ivanov remains strangely phlegmatic, morosely grounded and introverted, while Ivanov should forever jangle with nerves and shimmer with emotion … The production and ensemble acting more than the star make the night so memorable.”
Charles Spencer in the Daily Telegraph – “Compared with Chekhov's later plays the writing is sometimes crude. There is more than a touch of melodrama about the dramatic curtain lines, a vaudevillian quality to the comedy that includes one of the funniest portrayals of an all-male booze-up I've seen on stage … Kenneth Branagh is in magnificent form as Ivanov, combining the heartache of a down-at-heel Hamlet with the vituperative, self-lacerating rage of Osborne's Jimmy Porter. His cruelty, his weariness and his self-disgust are all unsparingly caught and yet Branagh also suggests the blighted beauty in the character that makes two women love him. Grandage's production, with atmospheric designs by Christopher Oram and a terrific score by Adam Cork, offers a feast of superb supporting performances. Malcolm Sinclair is in his element as a deeply misanthropic old aristocrat without a kind word for anyone, least of all himself, as he cynically resolves to marry for money. Tom Hiddleston exudes a priggish self-righteousness as the doctor who likes nothing better than telling Ivanov just how badly he is behaving; Kevin R McNally makes a superbly engaging and kind-hearted old soak, and Gina McKee and Andrea Riseborough are both deeply poignant as the unhappy women in Ivanov's life.”
Paul Taylor in the Independent (five stars) – “In preparing for the production, Branagh seems to have relaxed his spirit around every corner of the role before deciding where to screw up the intensity. One side of his Ivanov watches his own decline with appalled scientific curiosity; another chokes with hectic sobs as though in losing his earlier better self he were like a child suddenly bereaved of its parent … This is great acting, no question. He's beyond praise in the way this Ivanov responds to his wife's righteous doctor, whose priggish self-regard comes through with just the right insidious force in Tom Hiddleston's finely tuned portrayal … Everything is spot-on. Paule Constable's exquisite lighting that presents the first act's evening as a honeyed haze and Ivanov's den as a 19th-century French painting illuminated from above through grimy, leaf-clogged skylight. There's Grandage's wondrous instinct for pace and dynamics that here reveal the play to be like a parody of one of Dostoevsky's black, mood-swing farces (though without the Christian preoccupations). On more than one count, then, a must-see.”
- by Theo Bosanquet
** DON’T MISS our Whatsonstage.com Outing to IVANOV on 7 October 2008 - including a FREE programme & EXCLUSIVE post-show Q&A – all for £35! – we’ve now secured EXTRA tickets for this previously sold-out event! - click here to book now! **
How times and reputations change. When I saw John Gielgud play Ivanov in the mid-1960s, he drove me nuts. I rushed home and wrote a poem: “Ivanov, Ivanov, we’ve all had enough of, your whimpering, simpering whine; your tiresome self-pity is not even witty...” and so on.
Now the brutish comedy and callowness of Chekhov’s first play – overlooked by the playwright’s best English translator, Michael Frayn – makes it seem just the West End ticket. And the Donmar season at Wyndham’s is off to a flying start with Michael Grandage’s scorching production, Kenneth Branagh’s meticulous and moving performance as the gentleman farmer swimming in debts and despair, and Tom Stoppard’s clinical, idiomatic new version (using a literal translation by the perennially unsung Helen Rappaport).
I’ve rarely felt heat like it in the theatre, even without the air-conditioning. The lighting of Paule Constable and soundtrack of Adam Cork conspire with Christopher Oram’s dilapidated cream-painted interiors and fugged-up windows to create an overpowering atmosphere of meteorological and emotional stasis. Branagh’s Ivanov, aged up slightly to the wrong side of 40, is literally at the end of his tether and cannot fly.
He has fallen out of love with his Jewish wife who is dying of tuberculosis – and is played with an ingrained grief and starchy moon-faced resignation by beautiful Gina McKee – and trapped in a nightly vigil on his own crisis at the Lebedevs; Kevin J McNally’s wealthy neighbour is the Horatio, if you like, to this self-absorbed over-age Hamlet, while his grasping wife Zinaida (Sylvestra Le Touzel) pushes their daughter Sasha (Andrea Riseborough) towards a relationship of tactical materialism.
The luxury casting includes Lorcan Cranitch as Ivanov’s tempestuous estate manager, Malcolm Sinclair as his sadly unfulfilled uncle (“No children, no money, no prospects”), Tom Hiddleston as an impatiently critical doctor and Lucy Briers as a snobbish young widow. The cartoonish, Gogolian quality of the rogues’ gallery is more restrained than it was in Jonathan Kent’s hilarious revival (using a David Hare text) at the Almeida ten years ago, but the actors certainly give full individual value while maintaining an overall ensemble purpose of style and tone.
Branagh has never been better, making no bones about Ivanov’s horrible anti-semitism and the utter futility of his situation. Unlike Gielgud, of course, he doesn’t ask you to like him for a moment. The play hurtles by, hitting its four curtain climaxes with an almost shocking intensity. What was that about not too much serious drama going on in the West End?
I have to say this is one of the finest productions I have seen (and I have seen many!). The entire cast was outstanding, but particular plaudit has to go to Kenneth Branagh for his sensitive and highly charged portrayal of the title role. I also have to commend the lighting and stage crew. A magnificent production. I am glad I had the chance to see this - Laura
27 Nov 08
Very disappointing.Thought the play grossly over rated though as I get older most Chekov characters get more irritating.Some extremely good actors had very little to do and some not so good far too much!Grrrrrrr! - Mr Bumble
21 Nov 08
I would have given 5 stars for the terrific ensemble acting in this superbly staged production by the Donmar, but I can't as it might be misconstrued as including Mr Branagh, whose performance gave him the air of being in another play. One could best describe him as a bored geography teacher who having wandered into the drama department decided to stick around and get involved. He was the only let down in an otherwise faultless production which included start turns from Lorcan Cranitch, Malcolm Sinclair, Kevin McNally and of course the wonderful Gina McKee. Tom Stoppard's witty adaptation got its fair share of laughs, particularly when it touched on the very topical subject of economics. But why has a director of Michael Grandage's undoubted brilliance allowed this to happen? It's a complete mystery to me and makes me worry about another name, Jude Law, whose Hamlet is coming up next year. - rds
08 Nov 08
I went to this production with very high expectations, but was disappointed. It is inferior Chekhov, rambling and loosely constructed. Kenneth Branagh, whose performance has been so much lauded by the critics and the public,over-acted so much that I lost all sympathy for his character. I agree that the Donmar has done well to move this play to a larger theatre - and, judging by last night's audience, it will run and run - but the seating and viewing capability at Wyndham's are less than ideal. I was in the second row of the grand circle and lost a lot of the action because I was immediately behind someone. A great let-down. - sc
29 Oct 08
Extraordinary performance from Branagh - an astonishing, insightful portrayal of the toll of "endogenous" depression, which nobody around him sees or understands (least of all, the priggish doctor - well-played by Tom Hiddleston). McNally, Cranitch, McKee et al all superb too. Fantastic Stoppard adaptation - the Best Chekhov I have ever seen. - Annette Neary
15 Oct 08
This production has enough of a run scheduled to enable all sorts of people, if they want to, to see it before it ends. Good on the Donmar for moving this play to a theatre that has many more seats and then also to charge reasonable West End prices. What a cast, what a play and production, what a treat to have seen it in its opening week in such a lovely as-if-new Wyndham's. - El Peter
06 Oct 08
They used to call 'The Seagull' his flawed masterpiece, now it's Ivanov's turn again, why bother? It is a work of genius and this production proves it. Branagh is even better than you could ever wish for and there is not a weak link in the rest of the brilliant ensemble. As for being 'accessible' the theatere was full of rudely behaved ignorant fools when I was there. - joesmith
27 Sep 08
If Ivanov the man is suffering from depression Ivanov the play seems to have a severe case of schizophrenia. Kenneth Branagh is appearing in a Chekhov tragedy whilst the rest of the cast are in a black comedy bordering on farce. Whether that was Chekhov's intention or is a decision by Tom Stoppard and Michael Grandage I don't know but the contradictions are sometimes uncomfortable. To be fair when it is played as a comedy it is very funny indeed - the drunken Act 3 and particularly Kevin McNally dealing with wailing family and friends prior to his daughter's wedding. In his own separate play I was not wholly convinced by Branagh. He seemed much too contained and self-aware for a man filled with self-loathing and black depression and his Hedda Gabler moment was more like he was off for a stroll in the garden. I cannot share the critic's rave reviews of Ivanov but there is no doubt that it is a high quality production even if I have reservations about the srtistic direction. - David Baxter
24 Sep 08
I broke my 'no more Chekhov' rule as I'm a fan of most of the cast and the production team are virtually heroes! I still don't think it's a good play - it moves from pathos to farce to melodrama to tragedy and doen't really know what it is, BUT Tom Stoppard's adaptation has excellent naturalistic dialogue, the ensemble are simply stunning and the staging is craftsmanship of the first order. The third act in particular is a masterpiece of staging and a masterclass in acting. As much as I admire the attempt at accessibility, though, I have to report that the theatre is full of the usual suspects - white middle-aged middle-class (and that incudes me!). The only audience less diverse is at the Almeida or Hampstead Theatres! It seems that the efffect of lower prices is to make it cheaper for those who would be there anyway; though I'm grateful, I don't think that was the intention. It takes more than lowering prices to make quality theatre accessible it seems. - Gareth James
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