United Players of Vancouver

Ivanov By Anton Chekhov Translated by Tom Stoppard

Director Victor Vasuta Set Design John R. Taylor Costume Design Oleksandra Lykova Lighting Design Randy Poulis Sound Design Jeff Gladstone Stage Manager Anthony Wayne-Cooper

Ivanov is a man who never outgrows his youthful dreams of setting the world to rights. As an estate owner he is unable to manage his business properly, and consequently loses money. He marries a wealthy woman only to be cut off from his wife's money by her parents' disapproval of their Jewish daughter marrying a Gentile.

Far from trying to make his estate profitable by good management and the advice of his estate manager, Ivanov (Noel Johansen) still persists with his dreams of a perfect, charitable world. He grows more frustrated and blames his wife, Anna Petrova (Tamara McCarthy), whose money he has mismanaged, for his plight. Dissatisfied with his home life where Anna Petrova is dying of tuberculosis, he seeks company and solace at his well-to-do neighbour's evening gatherings.

At this house of Pavel Lebedev (Dave Campbell) he becomes bored and disillusioned by the card playing, gambling and political discussions of the other guests, night after night, but falls in love with the daughter, Sasha (Olesia Shewchuk). But these friends and neighbours are also bored with their way of life. They are seen as ungrateful, parasitic, boring and bored people by Zinaida (Christine Ianetta), Lebedev's parsimonious and perceptive wife.

Among the assorted parasites are an aging card playing, hard drinking lady, Avdotya Nazarovna, delightfully played by Nancy Bell, and an unlucky but entertainingly boring betting man Dmitry Kosykh (Seth Little) who both give humorous and clever cameo performances.

Ivanov is taken to task for his neglect of his sick wife by the proselyte of honesty, the earnest, young, local Dr. Lvov (Paul Ferancik). But to no avail.

Ivanov decides he must wed Sasha and abandon his long suffering wife. Sasha is content to wait until Ivanov is free but on the evening of her birthday party she visits Ivanov, Anna sees her and realises what is going on and turns her wrath on her feckless husband. Ivanov is horrified at his own response to this, and suddenly realizes his selfishness and cruelty.

The play culminates a year later, as Sasha and Ivanov are preparing for their wedding at the Lebedev house. Sasha, her father and Ivanov each independently decides that the wedding must be called off. The play ends with a dramatic pistol shot.

John Taylor has designed a set which is easily transformed from interior to garden scenes by the well oiled machinery and the well drilled scene shifters. The music is mood enhancing and pleasant. This is a witty and harsh look at society in rural Russia at the turn of the 19th century, in this modern translation by Tom Stoppard.

© 2010 Jane Penistan