The Present 2017
Run Time:
Three hours, with one intermission
Three hours, with one intermission
Ages: 5+
Opened: January 8, 2017Closing: March 19, 2017
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
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.
Theater Review: Cate Blanchett Boosts Up The Present (And So Does Her Underwear)
5 / 10
... if the politics of this Platonov revamp are apt enough, the drama still founders on the play's inability to link them convincingly to the nearly farcical social comedy of individuals at loose ends. Partly this is because the production, directed somewhat bumpily by John Crowley, keeps the politics at bay for too long while it focuses on the radiating damage an empty man can cause at great removes, like a storm surge. We do not really understand the stakes until it's too late, which may be accurate for the characters but undermines the audience. Chekhov's famous dramaturgical dictum - 'one must never place a loaded rifle on the stage if it isn't going to go off' - is meticulously observed here; the General's old pistol is all but spotlit throughout. But however much damage it finally causes, it isn't enough to turn The Present, which operates best as a comedy, into the tragedy it seems to wish it were. It would take Chekhov another 20 years to figure out how to make the two things into one.
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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
Note: Award winners will appear on a background
| 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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