Platonov review, Festival Theatre, Chichester

It was fitting, two nights after Suffragette launched this year's London Film Festival, to spend a day with Chekhov. He is a writer whose women are all cleverer than their men and driven to fantasy, humiliation, sacrifice, and ruin by their dependency on male patronage. The formula is broadly this: women love unconditionally because, in order to accept the limited roles available to them, they must believe pain is inevitable; men use and abuse women because that neediness is suffocating; and then the women lose everything. The formula also includes a male suicide somewhere near the end, and the rehearsal of philosophical points in and around the action. Sometimes you also get great laughs, as is true with Platanov.

David Hare's reworking of Chekhov's first play builds to a third act that is an absolute classic as our eponymous anti-hero wearily juggles the demands of his mistress (his best friend's beloved wife), the ministrations of his mature patron (his best friend's stunning stepmother, who drily notes that dogs and horses have more uses locally than an educated woman), the bewilderment of his adoring Missis, and writs from an angry teacher who has converted her desire for him into a legal offensive.  Platanov is worn out by their agitated chatter. Only his own voice gives him true pleasure.

What starts as an ensemble piece with Platanov as a cipher for examining the concerns of pre-revolution Russian gentry, morphs into a study of Platanov the man. Far from being the charismatic idealist desired by the women, he is a man disappointed with himself, and with life. Played with noisy charm by Glasgow-born James McArdle, Platanov becomes increasingly chaotic and Billy Connolly-esque as we head for a climax that presages all the markers of  Chekhov's later plays (see paragraph one). As a changing political climate robs the characters of health, wealth and happiness, his choice is clear.

In conclusion: Hare's dialogue is terrific and Jonathan Kent's production pelts along on Tom Pye's atmospheric set, which includes a wading lake. If you can only see one of the current Chichester Chekhov cycle  (Platanov is in rep with Ivanov and The Seagull), this one is worth seeing for it's sprawling, youthful, exuberance. The writer was just 20 at the time.  

References
Platanov, Chichester Festival Theatre, Tickets

Chichester Festival Theatre, Oaklands Park, Chichester.  Run ends Nov 14