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Four Plays in Twenty-Seven Hours: This was a kind of a crazy idea. The National Theatre has been having a special “Young Chekhov” event in which you see three plays normally done in repertory on individual nights, all in one day. I signed us up for it, not realizing that we also had tickets at the Old Vic the night before. So it really was a marathon.

It all started with “No’s Knife” at the Old Vic. It isn’t exactly a play. It was more of a performance piece based on selections from Samuel Becket’s “Texts for Nothing”. On one level, it was an amazing interpretation by Lisa Dwan, a dancer, actor, writer and Beckett expert, as she used movement and voice changes and odd, bleak scenery and a mist machine to enliven some of Beckett’s most obscure ramblings. On the other hand, it was so plotless that it made “Waiting for Godot” seem like “The Importance of Being Ernest”. There was a lot of existential despair, reflections on nothingness and ruminations about death. There were many good moments, but the whole thing wasn’t cohesive and, in fairness, was not intended to be. We both found it difficult to concentrate fully on the stream of thoughts that were being expressed for the full 70 or 80 minutes. It was one of those things that made you feel intellectual for simply being there and a dolt for not being able to find some sort of deep theme (beyond misery and death) or a trenchant comment on the modern world. An odd evening.

The next morning, we were off to the National Theatre, which was made difficult by the weekend closure of all of the tube lines that went anywhere close to it. The three plays on the day were the early works of Chekhov and the whole thing was the inspiration of David Hare, who also created new versions of the plays. The first play, which began at 11:45, was “Platonov”, also known as “The Play Without a Title” when Chekhov wrote it at about age 20, while a medical student. It was discovered 20 years after his death and performed sporadically until 1960, when an edited version first to use the tile “Platonov” was performed with Rex Harrison as the lead. Like most Chekhov plays, it is set in a country villa and I think might be characterized as a tragic farce. The set, which was used for all three plays (since they are all mostly set in country villas) was absolutely spectacular. In this case, the villa was the home of the widow Anna Petrova, played by the wonderful Nina Sosanya, who we’d seen before. The main character, played by Scottish actor James McArdle, is supposed to be the most interesting and handsome man in the community. Like seemingly all Chekhov characters, he has money problems and is unhappy with how his life has gone. He is a bit of a misogynist but is also irresistible to women, with whom he has a series of affairs, despite being married and a father. The fact that the women in play fall for him unhesitatingly, despite his flaws, really annoyed Judie (and she regards this portrayal of women as typical of Russian writers). Putting that reasonable objection aside, McArdle did play Platonov with considerable charm and humor and there were large sections of the play that were very funny, at least until it all begins to catch up with him in the last act and a tragic ending is assured. I found the whole production to be lively and immensely enjoyable. It is a play with a number of juicy parts and the cast was great. It turns out that “Wild Honey”, by Michael Frayn, which we are going see at the Hampstead Theatre later this year, is his adaptation of “Platonov”. I’ll be curious to see if it is different.

After  a quick lunch at House, the National Theatre’s on-site restaurant, we were back in our seats at 4:00 for “Ivanov”. This was Chekhov’s first complete play and the first ever performed (in 1887). It was an initial disaster, but was restaged triumphantly two years later after Chekhov rewrote it. This play is also set in country villas and has more tragedy and less humor than “Platonov”. Ivanov, played by Geoffrey Streatfeild,  is unhappy, has money troubles, and feels like he has wasted his life. In short, he is a typical Chekhov character. (What must life have been like in the late 1800s in Russia?) His wife, played by Nina Sosanya, is dying of TB and her doctor, played by James McArdle, is an insufferable prig whose idea of the truth helps to ruin the lives of both of them. There are some other characters who give a truly amusing view of the life in that era and who keep the proceedings moving. Unfortunately, Ivanov, at the center of the action, is simply clinically depressed for the entire play and cannot get himself out of it, despite the efforts of a young neighbor, played by Olivia Vinall, to pull him out of it. It is all a effective and dauntingly realistic realistic look at dealing with profound depression. (You keep thinking “Give this guy some medication!”) But it seems to me that the main character must develop over the course of a play and Ivanov cannot and does not. It isa one note role, leading to a one note performance. We are ultimately left waiting for his inevitable suicide. The play had moments, but was the least satisfying of the three, one I would not be tempted to see again.

Finally, it was back to the Olivier Theatre at 8:00 for “The Seagull”, a more familiar Chekhov work. The set contained a good deal of water, which was used somewhat in the first two productions, but was more central to this one, which is set in a country villa on a lake. There are two interconnected plots. One concerns the relationship between Irina, the owner of the estate, a spectacularly vain and famous actress, played with wonderful self-centered energy by Anna Chancellor, and her son Konstantin, played by Joshua James, who had also had a central role in”Platonov”. Her belittling of him and the destruction of his dreams is one theme. The other involves Nina, a young, talented and beautiful woman, played by Olivia Vianall (again–more on that below), who is a neighbor and beloved by Konstanin. She is casually seduced and ruined by Trigorin, (Streatfeild is back in this role), a famous author and the lover of the actress. As in all of three plays, there is a large company of interesting characters, all played with wonderful gusto. This play is ultimately about the dreams and ambitions of the young being thwarted by their elders and is consistent with the prior two plays, in which both the two young protagonist’s youthful dreams and ideals have been unmet, leaving them in a state of perpetual disappointment. And it turns out that the other running theme of the three plays is that if you are a character in a relationship with one played by Olivia Vinall, you are doomed. In “Platonov”, she is the jilted mistress whose life is ruined by Platonov and who shoots him at the end. In “Ivanov”, she is the well-meaning young woman intent on saving Ivanov by marrying him, only to see him shoot himself. And in “The Seagull”, she is the lovely, ruined Nina, who returns in the final act to see Konstantin and delivers the final blow to him by saying that she will always love Trigorin (thereby providing more evidence for Judie’s theory about female characters and Russian authors), which leads Konstantin to shoot himself. Which is how our day of theater ended, shortly after 10:30.

100 Kazoos: The next morning, we went to New Unity. It was the tenth anniversary of Rev. Andy’s first service there and a group from the Sunday Gatherings Team decided it was important to celebrate it and finally roped me into participating. I had two ideas which I implemented when the group agreed. First, I bought blank cards and envelopes and markers, so that everyone could create a card for him at a point during the service. (I didn’t think that the organizers gave people enough time  to finish, but I suspect some people just continued to work on their messages during the collection.) The planning group wanted to do something special and less serious and I suggested that we play “For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow” on kazoos. It seemed like something that had both English and American elements. So we did it. I bought 100 plastic kazoos, which we passed out at the end of the service, as the Music Director gave a quick lesson on kazoo playing. (Most of the congregation had never touched a kazoo before!) A joyful noise was made.