Larisa and the Merchants

Alexander Ostrovsky (1823-1886) was born into a merchant family in Russia. He wrote 40 prose and 8 verse plays. His acknowledged masterpieces are The Storm (1860) and The Forest (1871). Samuel Adamson's plays include: The Ballad of Hattie and James, Wife (both Kiln Theatre), Some Kind of Bliss (Trafalgar Studios), All About My Mother (from Almodóvar; Old Vic), Gabriel (Shakespeare's Globe), Fish and Company (Soho Theatre/National Youth Theatre), Southwark Fair (National Theatre), Drink, Dance, Laugh and Lie (Bush Theatre/Channel 4), Grace Note (Peter Hall Company/Old Vic), Clocks and Whistles (Bush Theatre), Frank & Ferdinand (National Theatre Connections); as well as contributions to the 24 Hour Plays (Old Vic), Hoard (New Vic, Stoke), A Chain Play (Almeida Theatre), Decade (Headlong Theatre) and Urban Scrawl (TheatreVoice/Theatre 503). Adaptations include: Jack Maggs, from Peter Carey's novel (State Theatre Company of South Australia); Ibsen's Pillars of the Community and Mrs Affleck, from Ibsen's Little Eyolf, (both at the National Theatre) A Doll's House (Southwark Playhouse); Chekhov's Uncle Vanya (Leeds Playhouse), The Cherry Orchard (Oxford Stage Company/Riverside Studios) and Three Sisters (OSC/Whitehall Theatre); Running Wild, based on the novel by Michael Morpurgo (Chichester Festival Theatre/Regent's Park Open Air Theatre); Schnitzler's Professor Bernhardi (Dumbfounded Theatre/Arcola Theatre/Radio 3); Bernhard Studlar's Vienna Dreaming (National Theatre Studio); a musical based on George MacDonald's The Light Princess, with Tori Amos (National Theatre); Ostrovsky's Larisa and the Merchants (Arcola Theatre). Radio includes: Tomorrow Week (Radio 3). Film includes Running for River (Directional Studios/Krug). He was Pearson Writer in Residence at the Bush in 1997-8.