Review: Gifted Cate Blanchett Adds Life To THE PRESENT

Those introspective, philosophical, womanizing man-children who inhabit the oeuvre of Anton Chekhov tend to be annoying bores, so even though the unpublished manuscript discovered after the playwright's death has been posthumously named after, its leading man, Platonov, it's no surprise that it's the leading lady who gets all the juicy material.

In director John Crowley's well-acted, lethargically staged Sydney Theatre Company production of Andrew Upton's adaptation, titled The Present, Cate Blanchett, who happens to be married to the playwright, is the beneficiary of the evening's funny and dramatically flashy moments while co-star Richard Roxburgh pulls his weight admirably, portraying the inebriated symbol of self-absorbed misogyny.

Broadway audiences may need a page or two to adjust the fact that, despite the Aussie accents, the characters remain Russian, although, as emphasized by the punk rock selections that introduce each half, Upton updates the action to the post-Perestroika 1990s.

Typically Chekhov, the play is set in a country estate, though designer Alice Babidge's representation is one of pale minimalism. It's the summer retreat of Anna (Blanchett), the alluringly intelligent, cynically humored and unpredictable widow of a general, who is throwing a party to not exactly celebrate as much as keep mind off her 40th birthday. And if she happens to attract a husband to save her from financial ruin, that's a plus.

Most noted among her guests is school teacher Mikhail (Roxburgh in the role formerly known as Platonov), who is going through the motions of being married to Sasha (Susan Prior, in long-suffering mode), while attracting the advances of every woman he encounters.

Though Mikhail has his moments with Sophia (Jacqueline McKenzie), the wife of Anna's stepson Sergei (Chris Ryan), and especially with Maria (Anna Bamford) the young lover of the doctor Nikolai (Toby Schmitz), he and Anna share a passion ignited by their mutual dissatisfaction with life, though she is realistic when it comes to such matters. ("There are two types of men. The unsatisfactory lover who makes an okay husband, and the unsatisfactory husband who makes an okay lover.")

The first of the play's four acts (there's one intermission) takes its sweet time setting up relationships and Crowley's static staging doesn't help matters any.

Things pep up substantially once the vodka kicks in during the second act's dinner party, when Anna attempts to alleviate her own boredom with some literally explosive entertainment, but The Present wastes a perfectly capable company in an attempt to make something out of a young playwright's abandoned first attempt at a full-scale drama.