Anton Pavlovich Chekhov – författare

A loosely structured family are facing breakdown under mounting pressures of the world around them, none more than the eponymous Uncle Vanya. A middle-aged man in a crisis of values, he is further threatened by dispossession at the hands of his brother-in-law, the caustic Professor Serebryakov.

Three Sisters, set in a rural backwater of Russia at the end of the nineteenth century, is a play about dreams, hope, work and love. The sisters of the title dream of returning to Moscow, where their lives, they are certain, will be happier; in the meantime, the eldest and youngest, Olga and Irina, seek solace in work and the middle sister, Masha, married to the local schoolmaster, embarks on a hopeless but passionate affair with Vershinin, commander of the local army battery. Years pass, and their brother Andrei's wife, Natasha, slowly but inexorably ousts Olga and Irina from their family home as well as draining all life and hope from Andrei himself. At the end, rootless and loveless, the sisters face a bleak future with only one certainty: we cannot understand life, we must just endure it. Christopher Hampton's version of Chekhov's classic tragicomedy captures both the light, comic naturalism of its dialogue and the poetic melancholy of its atmosphere, a firm sense of the play's period balancing perfectly with a very modern clarity and economy of expression.It premi red at the Playhouse Theatre in 2003 with Kristin Scott-Thomas, Robert Bathurst, James Fleet and Eric Sykes among a distinguished cast.

Spring 1903. Russia, And the cherry orchard is up for sale. Lyuboy Ranevskaya ran away to Paris five years ago after her only son drowned. Coming back to her beloved childhood home, she's faced with a mound of debts and an impossible decision - lose the family estate or carve up the land for summer holiday cottages. Lopakhin, the wealthy son of a former serf on the estate, sees a money-spinning opportunity and urges her to consider his scheme. But to Lyubov, the magnificent cherry orchard means everything. Written in 1904, The Cherry Orchard was Chekhov's last great comedy of life. This new version by Samuel Adamson was first produced by Oxford Stage Company on a UK tour and at London's Riverside Studios, with Geraldine James as Lyubov and Trevor Fox as Lopakhin.

For Madame Ranevskaya, her cherry orchard is more than just land; it is her childhood, her memories and her life. Returning for the first time since her young son drowned there, she must come to terms with the fact that in order to free her family of debt the cherry orchard must be sold, the trees must be cleared and she and her family must prepare for life beyond the orchard. This touching and often hillarious play exercises the perfect balance of comedy and tragedy, through the characters, relationships and observations of society.

Mamet discusses the real theme of Chekhov's play and presents his own version of the story in which a Russian aristocratic family is forced to sell its estate to the son of a peasant.