Overview
In 1997, David Hare adapted the little-known play, Ivanov, and revealed
the young Anton Chekhov as a markedly different writer from the one
English-speaking audiences recognize from the more familiar plays. Now
Hare has turned his attention to another, equally surprising key work of
Chekhov's youth - an abandoned seven-hour teenage manuscript in which a
Russian schoolmaster faces up to the implications of being irresistibly
attractive to four different women. Once again, we are introduced to a
great Russian playwright who is funnier, more exuberant and more wildly
romantic than anyone expects. Platonov, in this adaptation, was
premiered at the Almeida Theatre, London, in September 2001.