Overview

That this stage adaptation of a Chekhov novel should read and play as if written by the master himself is a significant achievement, and the fact that the novel's insightful portrayal of fin-de-siecle bourgeois life so readily lends itself to the stage is a great bonus - three simple representative sets "Act One, Scene One: The homely middle-aged son of a rich Moscow merchant, infatuated with a frivolous, provincial beauty, sniffs at her parasol and finds the courage to ask her, awkwardly, to marry him... It was not difficult to adapt this marvellously sad and funny story. The technical adjustments were virtually dictated by the narrative structure, the conflicts of the characters, and Chekhov's ever-present sense of drama".