Platonov

Synopsis

Platonov struggles with reality and romantic disillusionment on a grand country estate.

Our Review:

12 September 2001

You'd never have guessed there was so much mileage to it. So many far-reaching depths to probe. So much endless space to explore. Not Chekhov's play, by God, but the extraordinary length of stage exposed at the Almeida King's Cross for David Hare's rejigged Platonov.

So far back into King's Cross does the set seem to reach, that you half-anticipate the 7.30 from Leeds to come crashing through the backdrop. Indeed trains and their tracks, appropriately, remain central to Paul Brown's extraordinary design. Initially the rails remain submerged below a stream which runs through the bourgeois garden setting, with a throng of sunflowers bobbing like attendant courtiers.

Platonov is Chekhov's earliest work, and Hare acknowledges that its value remains historic above its literary merits. The central character Mikhail Platonov, is made known to us before his entrance: "He is like the hero of a Russian novel, and as you know Russian novels are the worst in...

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Latest User Review

USER: Whatsonstage.com - 25 October 2001:

After the lamentable Three Sisters at Chichester, how marvellous to rediscover the Chekovian mood in Act One of this thrilling production. Then come the surprises: the train sequence that closes Part One outdoes even the west end's much-lauded helicopter and chandelier; the melodrama of a damsel in distress on a railway line is not what we expect of a Chekhovian play, nor indeed is the drunken comedy of the schoolroom scenes. I was overwhelmed, and I've no idea where the time went. This production demands to be seen by anyone with half an understanding of Chekhov's world - or indeed by anyone who fancies an absorbing night out. Absolutely fantastic....

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