Platonov (play)

Platonov (Russian: Платонов, also known as Fatherlessness and A Play Without a Title) is the name in English given to an early, untitled play in four acts written by Anton Chekhov in 1878. It was the first large-scale drama by Chekhov, written specifically for Maria Yermolova, rising star of Maly Theatre. Yermolova rejected the play and it was not published until 1923.

The lead character is Mikhail Platonov, a disillusioned provincial schoolmaster. The play is set in a dilapidated country house in the Russian provinces. Landowner Anna Petrovna, Sofia Yegorovna, wife of Anna Petrovna's stepson, and one of his colleagues fall in love with the married Platonov. He thinks society is without ideas and principles, but is aware that he himself is very much part of that society. He is compared to Hamlet and Don Juan, and likes to think of himself as a witty and intellectually stimulating entertainer. In the end, he recognises his hopeless position between the four women and retreats into alcohol. Finally, Sofia understands that she cannot hope for a new life with Platonov and shoots him.

A widely performed adaptation by playwright Michael Frayn, given the title Wild Honey, appeared in 1984.

David Magarshack published an unabridged translation in 1964 at Faber and Faber.

Chekhov's own text, which despite a running time of about five hours he never thought of as finished, is seldom played. However, in 1997 the director Lev Dodin and the Maly Theatre of St Petersburg presented a faithful, and once again untitled, version at the annual Weimar summer arts festival Kunstfest Weimar (), presented at E-Werke, the city's former central power station. Dodin cut nine characters (and their interlocking sub-plots) but replaced them with a nine-piece jazz band. The running time was four hours. The production was taken to Saint Petersburg and Milan later that year. Five performances were mounted at the Barbican Arts Centre, London, in June 1999.

...
Wikipedia