Afterplay

Lovers of Chekhov characters will delight in Friel’s 2002 exploration of two key personas from his canonical works. Sonya Serebriakova (Uncle Vanya,1897) and Andrey Prozorov (Three Sisters,1900). The play imagines them in a much later stage of life and focuses on their interaction after a chance encounter in a Moscow café.

The text probes their core characteristics and the limitations they impose on their long-term happiness. Both characters are quite buoyant and sprightly carrying on the day-to-day duties that drive them forward. Sonya (Margaret Mills) is still managing the estate and is appropriately buried in paperwork and her business takes her to the capital on an occasional basis. Andrey (John Bolton) busks on the streets of Moscow as a way of financing excursions into the city. The idea that they would be attracted to each other is a great way to expose their very personal flaws. The minimal set and lighting design is very tastefully orchestrated with rich furniture, props and costumes and all are effectively combined to evoke the era and the atmosphere of the play.

In their attempt to impress one another they fabricate details about their lives only to find themselves impishly caught out in a lie. The acknowledgement of this results in a somewhat tragic obstacle to the development of a relationship between the two. Although this outcome is somewhat expected, the process through which they reach this is portrayed as endearing yet destined to be unfulfilled. Mills and Bolton both capture the nuance of this meeting well and take the audience along a wide range of deep emotions.  

This performance avoids the torturous intensity typical of Chekhov’s oeuvre, but it seems at the expense of the deeper tragedy of this encounter. 

Patricia Di Risio 

Photographer: Darren Gill