What would Russian writer Anton Chekhov think of the 21st century? If I am honest, that is not a question I have often asked myself.
Nor have I wondered whether Dickens would like fusion cuisine or if Ibsen would be taken by the idea of 3D TV. Yet it is clearly a question that playwright Dan Rebellato needed to answer.
The opening of his 90-minute comedy finds the author of The Cherry Orchard and Three Sisters quietly drifting into the abyss on his deathbed. A clock loudly ticks and tocks away the final moments of his life while he sips champagne watched by his wife, a doctor and two students.
Yet it is not the security of death waiting, but a coma from which he wakes in a hospital to find himself in a very different world.
This set up allows Rebellato to exaggerate stereotypes of the 21st century as Chekhov desperately tries to accustom himself to a very different way of life. Television creatives for a reality show called Helping Hands, a fashion designer with a hateful contempt of those that buy his clothes, and a singer street-talking her way through a description of her ‘crib’ are all sent up in Rebellato’s script, which pushes the boundaries of the characters’ credibility. The cultural touch points of 2011 – celebrity chefs, Twitter and smart phones – all come under Rebellato’s satirical gaze.
Without Chekhov at its centre, there would be a distinct lack of likeability to the piece, but Simon Scardifield’s performance as the softly spoken, soft featured, sweetly naïve dramatist from another era gives the show its heart. The desperation in his eyes as he tries to comprehend this depraved new world can be heartbreaking.
The central plot involving Chekhov’s escape from hospital and accidental involvement with the Russian mafia are almost incidental, there purely to give a structure to his brush with today.
What would Chekhov think of the 21st century? I am still really none the wiser, but he would probably have been impressed with the ensemble cast’s ability to portray a wide range of characters and Rebellato’s ability to pastiche the obsessions of now.
MA