Longing

Synopsis

When Kolia is invited to visit his oldest friends on their Estate in the country he anticipates a pleasant break from Moscow life. But as the comedy of provincial life plays out around him, he finds himself adrift in a miasma of false expectations, missed opportunities and unspoken passions. From two short stories by the Russian master Anton Chekhov, renowned and award winning novelist William Boyd (An Ice-Cream War, Brazzaville Beach, Any Human Heart, Restless, Waiting for Sunrise) spins a tale of nineteenth century Russian life both familiar and unfamiliar.

Our Review:

Michael Coveney - 8 March 2013

A new Chekhov play, Longing, has been created by novelist William Boyd from two of the Russian author’s short stories and given a wonderfully skilled and well-cast production by Nina Raine that certainly looks Chekhovian.

Designer Lizzie Clachan provides silver birches and sycamore, birdsong (tits and blackbirds), a colourful betrothal party, samovars and brandy bottles, and a delightful summer house in the wooded corner of a run-down country estate.

The shorter of the stories, “A Visit to Friends,” takes precedence, enveloping elements and only a few of the characters of the much longer one, “My Life,” in which Mishail (William Postlethwaite), the son of a drab, unimaginative architect, adopts a life of manual labour in reactionary disgust; Boyd consigns him to this summer house, on a roof-painting expedition, where two sisters and a friend (from the shorter story) are welcoming a diffident Moscow lawyer, Kolia (Iain Gl...

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Latest User Review

David Baxter - 21 March 2013:

Longing is based on two Chekhov short stories which William Boyd has skillfully adapted into a single coherent play, although it is undeniably Chekhov-lite with clear portents of Vanya, Three Sisters and especially The Cherry Orchard. Some of the back stories are under-developed, particularly the character of Kolia whose past relationship with and constant feelings for the devoted Varia seem unnecessarily confused. Ian Glen gives an exceptional performance given such limited raw materials and Tamsin Greig is also excellent, albeit in a role that feels like a re-run of her superb Beatrice in the RSC's Much Ado. With a couple of exceptions there is good support throughout the cast and this is a fascinating look at the early development of Chekhov into such a great dramatist....

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