Ivanov

Chekhov's first, but least known, major play in a new version from David Hare. The play focuses on a disillusioned Ivanov who no longer loves his adoring ailing wife, and begins a passionate affair with the daughter of his best friend.

This adaptation by David Hare premiered at the Almeida Theatre, London in 1997 starring Ralph Fiennes This is a drama of a Russian landowner's half-farcical, half serious personal crisis as he plummets fast into domestic and philosophical chaos. The central scene concerns a debate between the landowner and the young doctor about honesty. The latter thinks that honesty is to do with blurting out offensive truths, whilst the former insists that no-one can acquire honesty unless they have the self knowledge to examine their own motives. By turns despairing and passionate, this play offers an insight into a robust young writer, exploring themes that were to interest him in his later plays.