Platonov
by Anton ChekhovEnglish version by Dmitri Makaroff
Directed by George Devine and John Blatchley
The English Stage Company
Royal Court Theatre
First performance 13th October 1960 (44 performances)
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Rex Harrison ........ Platonov
Rachel Roberts ........ Anna Petrovna
Ronnie Barker ........ Nikolai Triletski
Peter Bowles ........ Kiril
Frank Finlay ........ Ivan Triletski
James Bolam ......... Yakov
Graham Crowden ........ Sergei Voinitsev
Peter Duguild ........ Marko
Susan Engel ........ Katya
Jeremy Geidt ........ Sccherbuk
Murray Gilmore........ A Village Priest
Elvi Hale ........ Sofya
Thomas Hammerton ........ Bugrov
Rosalind Knight ........ Maria Grekova
George Murcell ........ Osip
Moris Perry ........ Vasili
Norman Pitt ........ Glagolyev
Nicholas Selby ........ Vengerovich
Mary Watson ........ Sasha
Susan Westerby ........ Dunyasha
Chekhov's lost play, or Play Without A Title, was written when he was a young medical student aged 20. He offered the play to the Maly Theatre who rejected it, so he abandoned the piece. In 1923 the six hours of material was discovered in a bank vault nearly 19 years after his death with the title page missing. It was first published in 1933, under the title Fatherlessness.
The play was transposed to the American Deep South as Firework on the James and went to New York in 1960 as A Country Scandal.
The Royal Court staging in 1960 was the first in the UK and it took on the title Platonov. In 1984 Michael Frayn rewrote the play for the National Theatre and its title changed once again - to Wild Honey.
