THE STORY: The setting is the estate of the wealthy Sorin, where a group of family and friends are spending the languid summer months. Included are Madame Arkadina, Sorin’s sister and famous actress; her sensitive would-be-writer son, Treplyev; and the charming, successful author Trigorin. The action concerns the interweaving of their lives with the others, and all the romance, intrigue, hopes and disappointments that this life leads to. It is an absorbing and compelling tapestry and evocation of real life and real people and, ultimately, a deeply moving and revealing human experience.
A classic play of the modern theatre, given new life and meaning in a superb rendering by one of our most important and resourceful young playwrights.
“It is sublimely understood Chekhov…an event and a thrilling one.” —New York Post.
“It is a very fluent, idiomatic version…it has none of the stiffness of a translation, yet, so far as I can tell, it remains absolutely true to Chekhov” —The New York Times.
Joins other van Itallie adaptations of Chekhov:
The Cherry Orchard,
Three Sisters, and
Uncle Vanya.
