Word: platonov
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...PLATONOV. Romanian director Liviu Ciulei blends farce and great sadness in Chekhov's early drama, at Harvard's American Repertory Theater...
...illustrated weekly Ogonyok, which formerly was tedious fodder for waiting-room tables, is now headed by an energetic managing editor who has transformed it into a sharply contentious publication. Znamya magazine has just published Andrei Platonov's Juvenile Sea, which had been sitting in the archives for 52 years...
...rejected, perhaps because its diffuse narrative would take six to seven hours to stage, he destroyed his manuscript. Another copy, found after his death, has given rise to several adaptations. Frayn's, which lasts 2 1/2 hours, shifts the focus from the leading lady to a man, the schoolteacher Platonov, and provides a wondrous star turn for Ian McKellen, who won a 1981 Tony Award for his portrayal of Salieri in Amadeus...
...candor. From the moment he capers onto the stage, he seems infinitely more alive than everyone around him. No matter how thwarted or downcast, he never loses his vision of life as adventure rather than mere existence. But as his admirers gradually realize, the very boyish traits that make Platonov so appealing also render him irresponsible: unlike the safe and predictable dullards around him, he has simply never grown up. In the funniest yet most poignant scene, he feverishly debates whether to stay faithful to his wife (Kate Burton) or sneak off to join a handsome widow who has urged...
...cellos and sad small talk ("If you think this place is dull when you're here you should be here when you're not here"); the second half is flat-out farce with the tincture of domestic tragedy coloring the night sky. Ian McKellen is fine as Platonov, the country schoolmaster whose bitter gaiety attracts women to him like flies to wild honey. But the true star of Christopher Morahan's production-and, these days, of the entire National Theater-is Designer John Gunter. His garden and woodland sets provide the perfect trysting place for sobriety...