SONS WITHOUT FATHERS Arcola Studio 1

Helena Kaut-Howson has adapted, updated and directed Anton Chekhov’s first play, which he wrote in 1881 when he was a 21-year-old university medical student. It was not discovered until 1920 and not performed in Russia until 1960. The rough draft lasts six hours. Cut now to three hours, it is still too lon: a crude, sprawling, unwieldy mess, uncertain whether to be comic or tragic. Platonov is a 30-year-old provincial schoolteacher, who just goes through the motions. He sees mediocrity and corruption everywhere and cannot forgive himself for wasting his life. Full of self-disgust, he struts, postures and mocks and insults everybody. Women find him irresistible and throw themselves at him. Will he shoot himself in the Russian manner? Or will he throw himself in front of a train as Platonov did in Michael Frayn’s version? Or will he be murdered by a horse-thief or shot by the woman with whom he is intending to elope? Platonov, a mixture of Byron, Hamlet and Chatsky, is a great role for an actor and Jack Laskey gives a charismatic performance which makes you eager to see what he will do next. Simon Scardifield is admirable as his best friend.