Anton Chekhov’s first full length play PLATANOV (1887) is a perfect fit for the Australian Theatre for Young People to put on in their intimate Studio space.
This play is all about young people, their angst, sexuality, dreams, concerns, obsessions, addictions, grog, money hassles…
It was kind of disturbing watching prominent Sydney director Antony Skuse’s production play out. The sense of doom one feels for these characters as their lives spiral further out of control. And also how we live in a very different world to Russia in the 1880’s, and yet that old chestnut came to mind, ‘The more things change, the more they remain the same’.
Skuse’s staging couldn’t be more basic. The set is simply a set of old chairs strewn around the stage area. After interval, in a symbolic gesture, all the chairs are in an over-turned state.
The cast of fourteen match the staging by delivering raw, elemental performances.
The play is framed around a Casanova kind of scenario. Popular stage and screen actor Charlie Garber leads from the front playing Bad Boy Platanov who can’t keep his hands or his lips off women, but then again the reverse applies too.
Four gorgeous women vie for his body and soul….Matilda Ridgway as his wife (‘well, sort of’) Sasha, Eloise Snape as Mariya, Suzanne Pereira as Anna and Geraldine Hakewill as Sofya. I can see how it does his head in.
The men, or want to be men in these women’s lives, do not take kindly to Platanov being the centre of attention , and some amongst them want blood!
Well worth a visit, on so many different levels. What a privilege to see fourteen of Sydney finest young actors on stage doing their shtick. Equally a privilege to see an early Chekhov work and to already see some of the predominant themes that would inhabit Chekhov’s work. One could swear some of the scenes were straight out of UNCLE VANYA.
A Mophead , Catnip and ATYP Select production, Antony Skuse’s revival of Anton Chekhov’s PLATANOV plays the ATYP Studio theatre until the 22nd November. Performances Tuesdays to Saturdays at 7pm and Sundays 5pm.