Platonov (Paperback, Main)

In 1997, the celebrated contemporary playwright David Hare adapted a little-known play called Ivanov, and in doing so revealed the young Chekhov as a markedly different writer from the one English-speaking audiences were familiar with. Now Hare has produced a streamlined new version of Chekhov's freshman drama Platonov, an abandoned seven-hour manuscript in which Chekhov recasts Don Juan as a Russian schoolmaster. Again, we encounter a great writer who is funnier, more exuberant, and more wildly romantic than anyone expected.