The Present
Three hours, with one intermission
The Present - 2017 Broadway History , Info & More
Ethel Barrymore Theatre (Broadway)
243 West 47th St. New York, NY
Variously known as Platonov, Wild Honey, Fatherlessness and The Disinherited, Anton Chekhov's untitled first play was not discovered until 1920, some 16 years after the playwright's death.
Andrew Upton's adaptation is set post-Perestroika in the mid-1990s at an old country house where friends gather to celebrate the birthday of the independent but compromised widow Anna Petrovna (Blanchett). At the center is the acerbic and witty Platonov (Roxburgh) with his wife, his former students and friends and their partners. They may appear comfortable, but boiling away inside is a mess of unfinished, unresolved relationships, fuelled by twenty years of denial, regret and thwarted desire.
PREVIEW The Present - 2017 - Broadway
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FEATURED REVIEWS FOR The Present
The Present: EW stage review
7 / 10
The soulful, rueful, and romantic Russian playwright Anton Chekhov is one of those evergreen, canonic dramatists who, like Ibsen, O’Neill, and Shakespeare, will never go out of fashion. No matter what continent or hemisphere you’re in, somewhere there’s guaranteed to be a stage where The Seagull or Uncle Vanya or Three Sisters or The Cherry Orchard is being performed. Rarely, though, do you get a chance to see his forgotten first play, Platonov. There are a couple of reasons for that: The first and most obvious is that, as written, the four-act drama is five hours long – an endurance test for even the heartiest and most devoted Chekhovian. Second, and more mysteriously, it’s just one of those plays that tends to get overlooked. It’s a second-tier work that seems to shrink when put under the same spotlight as Chekhov’s first-tier ones. It’s his Beethoven’s Symphony No. 2 — impressive, but no one walks around humming it.
Cate Blanchett, Richard Roxburgh wrap you up in 'The Present': theater review
7 / 10
Par for the course in Chekhov, this Sydney Theatre Company production written by Blanchett's husband Andrew Upton and directed by John Crowley ('Brooklyn') is filled with lost souls, regrets, an uncertain future and pistols. The action, set in Russia in the mid-1990s, signalled with maxi dresses, mom jeans and apt pop tunes like 'What Is Love?', begins with preparations for a birthday bash. Anna (Blanchett), a widow and landowner on the verge of ruin, is turning the big 4-0. She's less interested in blowing out birthday candles than blowing up her life - as in, with dynamite.
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The Present History
Other Productions of The Present
| 2017 | Broadway |
Original Broadway Production Broadway |
The Present - 2017 Broadway Awards and Nominations
| Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominee |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Actress in a Play | Cate Blanchett |
| 2017 | Drama League Awards | Distinguished Performance Award | Cate Blanchett |
| 2017 | Tony Awards | Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play | Cate Blanchett |
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