Review Roundup: YOUNG CHEKHOV: THE BIRTH OF A GENIUS

Newly adapted by David Hare and directed by Jonathan Kent, YOUNG CHEKHOV: THE BIRTH OF A GENIUS, opened on 17 October, which presents a unique theatrical event seeing a repertory cast of 23 actors performing 50 parts in PLATONOV, IVANOV and THE SEAGULL. For the first time ever on this scale, audiences will be given the opportunity to see all three shows in close proximity performed by the same group and with the same creative team.

Let's see what the critics had to say:

Michael Coveney, WhatsOnStage: Jonathan Kent's productions of all three plays reveal scenes of anger, despair and penury, muddled love lines, impulsive affairs, insults and bad behaviour, suicide, comical crossed wires and, perhaps most surprisingly, a developing fascination with theatrical form which mixes up riotous social set-pieces, direct address, acrimonious argument and troubled, confessional soliloquy.

Michael Billington, The Guardian: Revived now, it emerges as a buoyantly tragic farce with a hero who combines the priapic vigour of Don Juan with the moral hesitancy of Hamlet. Platonov, a charismatic schoolmaster, bounces dizzily between his loving wife, a general's widow and an old flame who is newly married... However much one disapproves of him, he is a magnificently alive creation, beautifully played by James McArdle with a boyish charm and a strong Scottish accent. No sooner has his wife berated him for ruining their lives than he turns to the audience and, without a hint of contrition, says: "The cheek of it!"

Dominic Cavendish, Daily Telegraph: Faced with the relentless parade of the dissatisfied and terminally unhappy, those of a depressive tendency might reach for the vodka. But this latest venture from theatreland's southern powerhouse is so consistently illuminating, it puts a smile on your face. No barrage of superlatives will do justice to a monumental project that employs 23 of our finest actors, sharing 50 roles.

Ann Treneman, The Times: "What a day! The idea is to present Chekhov's first three plays as a way of tracking his genius. All of them, reinterpreted smoothly by David Hare, were directed with fizz by Jonathan Kent." "How to survive total-immersion Chekhov? It's easy, as it turns out. Platonov was a revelation. Chekhov never saw this play staged, not least because he wrote the seven hours (!) of material when he was very young. I think he would heartily approve of Hare's pared down version." "Anna Chancellor (of Four Weddings and a Funeral and so much more) is the scene-stealing vain-glorious actress (and terrible mother) Irina and [Samuel] West is the novelist Boris Trigorin. Both are superb."

Mark Shenton, The Stage: This rarely seen play, which was last given a major production at the Almeida in 2001 directed then, as now, by Jonathan Kent, finds plenty of rueful humour among the broken hearts. So does the more frequently produced Ivanov - the first play that Chekhov completed - which preceded Platonov at the Almeida in 1997, with Kent directing Ralph Fiennes in the title role, and was more recently revived with Michael Grandage directing Kenneth Branagh in the title role in 2008. This inward-looking journey into one man's depression - and its impact on those around him - is charted with a deeply internalised sense of haunting and haunted despair by Samuel West.

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