Like Anton Chekhov, the Russian playwright and short-story teller to whom she is so often compared, she alchemised ordinary lives into great literature.

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Countless modern writers have been influenced by Anton Chekhov's short stories and plays, which renounce plot-based structure, concentrating instead on the quasiabstract sketching of character and mood.

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She began acting at the West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds before making her professional West End debut in a 1985 revival of Anton Chekhov's The Seagull, winning the London Drama Critics' most promising newcomer award for her performance as Nina.

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In 1998, for instance, Brian Friel wrote an adaptation of "Uncle Vanya" in which Anton Chekhov's quintessentially Russian tale of impoverished aristocrats at bay is translated into a subtly Irish-accented version of English in which "Well, I wish you all the best of luck!"

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Durang flings all kinds of references into his word processor: Angelina Jolie, Snow White, Maggie Smith, global warming, Norma Desmond, William Penn, "Peter Pan, " the HBO show "Entourage, " Lindsay Lohan, ancient Greek drama, voodoo and, as the title suggests, a big dollop of Anton Chekhov.

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The writer is set to release his memoirs, entitled Joseph Anton - the name he used while in hiding, and a reference to his favourite authors Conrad and Chekhov - which tell of how he was forced underground in 1989 over his book.

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