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Wyndham's Theatre
Charing Cross Road WC2H 0DA		 Ivanov
Wyndham theatre 3D location mapMap ©Silvermaze Ltd 2008
 Wyndhams Theatre photoPhoto ©Tony Reading 2008
Show Details
Preview 12th Sept 08
Opens 17th Sept 08
Closes 29th Nov 08
Show Times
Tuesday - Saturday 7.30 pm
Matinée Weds & Sat 2.30 pm
Matinée Sunday 3.00 pm

Local Info
Top Class restaurants nearby;

Beotys (Greek & Trad English)
79 St Martin's Lane
020 7836 8768
Mon Plaisir (French)
21 Monmouth Street
020 7836 7243
Browns (British & European)
82 St Martin's Lane
020 7497 5050
Book Now Great Hotel Deals
This link takes you straight to the online booking page for this actual show! The Londontown online hotel booking service is the best one - backed by men and women on the phone who guide you to get the best central hotel for your needs and offer great deals as well. We use them ourselves.
Taxis & Travel Contact us
This links you to the taxi page
of Transport for London.
Anton Pavlovich Chekhov was born in Taganrog - a provincial town in Ukraine in 1860. He became a physician, and began to write short stories - mainly short comic sketches he called 'vaudvilles'. The first collection of his humorous writings, Motley Stories, was published in 1886. His first play, Ivanov, was produced in Moscow in the next year as a comedy and only ran for 4 days. In 1902 five years later, with some few amendments, the play was a rousing success.

Story
Ivanov was a visionary who saw the need for scientific farming methods and of education for the peasants.  
His country was stagnating politically, ideologically and also spiritually. He was influentual in local government and was forceful to implement his ideas.  He neglected the bureaucracy needed to run own his estate - being a landowner.  This caught up with him and he soon became lost in paperwork exacerbated by small town jealousies and intrigues. He also had a way with the women, neglecting his ailing wife who was terminally ill.

Once a pioneer and activist he now becomes engulfed in apathy and debt at thirty-five, ignoring the welfare of his large estate.  Sasha, an educated young lady, falls in love with him and takes him on as her mission.

Cast

Players
• Ivanov - Kenneth Branagh  •  Babakina - Lucy Briers • Shabelsky - Malcolm Sinclair  • Anna Petrovna - Gina McKee • Lebedev - Kevin R McNally • Sasha - Andrea Riseborough • Yegorushka/Pyotr - John Atterbury • Avdotya - Linda Broughton • Borkin - Lorcan Cranitch  • Lvov - Tom Hiddleston  • Zinaida - Sylvestra Le Touzel • Kosykh - James Tucker

Design - Christopher Oram
Lighting - Paule Constable
Sound - Adam Cork

Chekhov's first play anticipates the revolutionary undercurrents to explode in Russia at the turn of the century.
© Covent-Garden.co.uk 2008 Updated 20th June 2008