Festival Fringe Reviews
- After Chekhov
- Rating ***
An Intimate Portrait of a Creative Life
Sevastpol, Crimea, April 1914 and Olga, elegantly dressed in neat skirt and jacket, blue lace hat, feather boa and clutching a brown leather bag, arrives at the theatre for a performance of Chekhov's "The Cherry Orchard" in which she plays the leading lady, Madame Ranevsky. The set is ready, wickerwork sofa, desk, books, child's highchair and teddy bear, but it brings back painful memories - she desperately misses Chekhov who died ten years earlier. "My life is the theatre", Olga explains, "I would have died too but for the theatre." We hear of their first meeting in 1898 when rehearsing "The Seagull", falling in love - "He is so funny!" - and later their romantic elopement. But Chekhov is ill and their honeymoon is spent at a Sanatorium.
Waiting for the cast to arrive Olga reminisces about good and bad times. She recalls all the Chekhovian characters she has played, reciting her favourite lines with stories of the great method actor/director Stanislavsky at the Moscow Arts Theatre. With a lively, sparkling spirit Barlow captures Olga's strength of character, her fluctuating feelings and her undying passion for the theatre. Although there is a snatch of Tchaikovsky before the show starts, surprisingly there are no music, sound effects or lighting changes which would assist in varying the mood, ambience and pace to enhance an otherwise delightful performance.
Angela Barlow who is also performing Reader in "I Married Him" about Charlotte Bronte at the same venue on odd dates.
When and Where
Vivien Devlin, August 2004
Return to Index of 2004 Fringe Reviews.
Where else would you like to go in Scotland?
Literary figures are a popular choice for one-woman shows, offering an intimate portrait of a person's creative life. In this new play, writer and performer Angela Barlow portrays Olga Knipper Chekhov, wife of playwright Anton Chekhov. His masterly comic plays are still perennially popular one hundred years after his death - but who was she?
Venue C Central. (Venue 54) Carlton Hotel, North Bridge, runs to 20th August, at 1.10pm [even dates only].
