A Month in the Country is Chekhovian to the core

10 April 2012

After five superb months in the country, the 2010 Chichester Festival season wraps up with a production that is stylish in every way. We might first notice Paul Brown’s magnificent dacha set, with its branches stretching out over the ceiling of the entire auditorium, but it’s soon apparent that the acting and direction are of a similar class.

"Chekhovian" is an adjective too readily applied, especially to period pieces that require a large, fluid ensemble of performers, but here it really pertains. Ivan Turgenev, perhaps best remembered for his novel Fathers and Sons, wrote this drama between 1848 and 1850 and its country setting among Russian landowners cannot but stir memories of his compatriot. There’s marginally less languor than in Chekhov, although under the seemingly smooth surface of this well-run house threads a daisy chain of romantic turmoil.

Natalya (Janie Dee), bored wife of a benign but distracted older husband, is entranced by Aleksey (James McArdle), the young graduate come to tutor her son. So, too, is Natalya’s 17-year-old ward Vera (Phoebe Fox) while family friend Michel (Michael Feast) is smitten with Natalya.

This being a Russian play, there’s a fighting chance no one will come out happy and director Jonathan Kent is commendably intent on wringing every last drop of emotion out of the turmoil so elegantly conveyed by Brian Friel’s adaptation.

Dee, growing in stature with each new role, gives a commanding performance as a woman awakened from a genteel slumber, displaying a scintillating range of moods that shade from light to dark, capricious to resolute. McArdle is equally good, bounding about with compelling vitality. I confidently predict a big future for him. Roll on summer 2011.
Until October 16. Information: 01243 781312, cft.org.uk

A Month in the Country
Festival Theatre
Chichester

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