RUTH LEON RECOMMENDS… Anton Chekhov – Michael Pennington

Anton Chekhov – Michael Pennington 
Click here for tickets  £15.00 May 21/22 

“I don’t like the theatre, I can’t stand the actors.”
Guess who said that? Only one of the greatest playwrights ever to walk the earth. I’ve often thought it was a good thing  Anton Chekhov takes the form of an evening spent in the company of the Russian writer towards the end of his life. In it he reminisces about his life, his times and work; he tells stories, speaks about the theatre and engages deeply and humorously with his English audience. Anton Chekhov was also a doctor so he knew he could always give it all up and go back to medicine if the actors annoyed him too much, although he did manage to marry one. He gave up writing plays after the failure of his first, The Seagull,  and was tempted back by meeting the director Konstantin Stanislavsky, who promptly directed it in a better production at his Moscow Art Theatre. If he hadn’t, neither that play nor any of the subsequent masterpieces – The Cherry Orchard, Three Sisters, Uncle Vanya, etc – might ever have been written.

The celebrated actor (four-time Olivier Award nominee) has been celebrating Chekhov around the world since 1984 and it’s coming home to roost at Jermyn Street Theatre this week. Michael Pennington’s Anton Chekhov takes the form of an evening spent in the company of the Russian writer towards the end of his life. In it he reminisces about his life, his times and work; he tells stories, speaks about the theatre and engages deeply and humorously with his English audience.

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This is part of Jermyn St Theatre’s Footprints Festival so there’s a certain amount of faffing to navigate the website but stay with it. It’s worth it. It helps to know that it’s in Band B.   

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