It's a Chekhov-style ensemble play whose 11 onstage characters, whether they know it or not, are all leading lonely, unfulfilled lives.
At the Hampstead Theatre, Nina Raine directs William Boyd's new play, "Longing" a splicing together of a pair of Chekhov short stories.
Not wishing to be bowed down by performing Chekhov, he pays for a silvery quack (David Strathairn) to remove his soul and then, a while later, replace it with that of a poet.
Though they only became lovers two years later, Chekhov's brief postscript marked the start of a five-year relationship that ended in July 1904, when Chekhov died.
The population of Sakhalin which Chekhov, visiting when the island was a giant prison camp, considered the most depressing place in Russia has fallen by around a quarter.
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.
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.
Thankfully, for a show that both lampoons and honors Chekhov's themes, it doesn't end with the sadness that usually dominates that revered playwright's work.
It helps if you know something about Chekhov when Sonya wails "I am a wild turkey, " it's more fun if you know that's a riff on his "Seagull" but Durang's genius is the ability to write highbrow and low at the same time.
The critical journey produces a series of sharp and witty observations about Chekhov's life and work.
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.
Among other things, he should have taken Chekhov's oft-quoted advice if you show the audience a gun, somebody had better fire it sooner or later just as he should have had the courage to eschew the crowd-pleasing touch of sentimentality that ends the play.
WSJ: Jitney | August Wilson | The Verbal Music of Life | Theater Review by Terry Teachout
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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