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Maribor Theatre Festival — Archive 2010 - 2016

Anton Pavlovič Čehov

Platonov

Platonov <em>Photo: Peter Uhan</em>

Photo: Peter Uhan

SNG Drama Ljubljana
15. 10. 2010, 17.00 // OLD HALL - STARA DVORANA
Running time 3 hours and 30 minutes. One interval.

Opening
17. 4. 2010 Velika dvorana, SNG Drama Ljubljana

Adapted by Vito Taufer
Translator Borut Kraševec
Director Vito Taufer
Dramaturg Darja Dominkuš
Set designer Žiga Kariž
Costume designer Nina Jagodic
Composer Andrej Goričar
Language consultant Tatjana Stanič
Lighting designer Pascal Mérat
Assistant set designer Barbara Kapelj Osredkar
Assistant costume designer Erna Ostanek

Cast
Anna Petrovna, young widow to General Voynitzev Nataša Barbara Gračner
Sergei Voynitzev, son by General Voynitzev’s first wife Saša Tabaković
Sofya Yegorovna, wife to Sergei Barbara Cerar
Porfiri Glagolyev neighbour, landowner Aleš Valič k.g.
Kiril Glagoljev, his son Uroš Fürst
Gerasim Petrin, wealthy merchant Valter Dragan
Maria Grekova, chemistry student, twenty Saša Mihelčič
Colonel Ivan Triletsky Andrej Nahtigal
Nikolai Triletsky, doctor, son of Colonel Triletsky Bojan Emeršič
Abraham Vengerovich 1, Jewish businessman Ivo Ban
Isak Vengerovich, Abraham’s son, a student Tom Ban k.g.
Timofei Bugrov, merchant Jurij Zrnec
Mikhail Vasilievich Platonov, schoolteacher Marko Mandić
Sasha Ivanovna, wife to Platonov, daughter of Ivan Triletsky Maša Derganc
Osip, horse-thief Matevž Müller AGRFT
Katya, maid to Voynitzcevs Tina Vrbnjak
Yakov, servant Andrej Zalesjak AGRFT
Marko, servant Vito Weis AGRFT

Anton Pavlovich Chekhov wrote Platonov while he was still a student of medicine. The play did not have a title and was only discovered after his death; it was published as A Play Without a Title in 1923. Because of its length (the original text is around 160 pages and would run about eight hours), the play is usually performed in adapted form, often titled after the main character, Platonov. A Play Without a Title is probably most interesting as a kind of "Chekhov before Chekhov". Whereas the more familiar Chekhov usually "abolishes" the character of the hero, or else casts "life itself" as the protagonist, with individual characters as its prisoners, Platonov has quite a few melodramatic features. One summer, Platonov, an allegedly happily married provincial schoolmaster, becomes involved (almost against his will) in several love affairs at once. His lovers include General Voynitzev’s young widow (a landowner) and her stepson’s wife. Out of a desperate sense of mischief he also fl irts with other girls. All this eventually leads to a shooting. Yet the play doesn’t cast Platonov as a Don Juan. Rather, he is more of a Hamlet, unable to take a decision and thereby to liberate himself from a world ruled by common interests and seemingly frivolous carelessness,
a world without meaning and purpose.