Turgenev was writing about the frustrations of love, emotional paralysis and the romantic disappointments of the Russian aristocracy decades before Chekhov. In Brian Friel’s reworking of Turgenev’s play, A Month in the Country, presaging Chekhov, a group of privileged Russians spend a languid summer caught up in desires that are largely impossible to fulfil. Friel’s play was first produced at the Dublin Gate Theatre in 1992, and is now being revived at the Donmar Warehouse.
At the centre of this emotional tangle is Natalya (an enchanting Sophie Okonedo), the lady of the house, whose mutual attraction to her son’s young tutor Aleksey (Patrick Gibson) sets much of the drama in motion. She is married to Arkady (Thomas Arnold), but finds herself increasingly drawn to Aleksey, a poor Moscow scholar whose youth and enthusiasm prove irresistible. Aleksey, in turn, is mesmerised by her beauty and sophistication. Meanwhile, her 15-year-old niece Vera (Rachelle Diedericks) is spellbound by a schoolgirl crush on him.
The complications multiply, but the play is less interested in resolving them than in exploring the different compromises people make in the search for love. Some characters are prepared to settle for security or companionship, while others pursue desires that can never quite be fulfilled, or once revealed bring embarrassment and shame. Even marriage is treated less as a romantic destination than as a practical arrangement, shaped by money, convention and the fear of being alone. In contrast, only the servants Matvey (Jonathan Livingstone) and Katya (Jessica Brindle) seem to enjoy the one uncomplicated relationship in the play.
The play sometimes feels like a succession of intertwined love triangles, and its self-containment means there is little sense of dramatic urgency. Yet director Lyndsey Turner brings a light-hearted ambience to these thorny and very human questions of how we find — and sometimes fail to find — love. Some characters are consumed by passion, others are heartbroken, while others settle for what is available to them. There is plenty of comedy in these complicated relationships, but Friel never loses sight of the longing underneath. We recognise the hopes, disappointments and compromises of people trying to find love, even when they don’t quite know what they are looking for or how to find it.
Turner keeps these complicated relationships clear and compelling, and the cast is uniformly top rate. As Natalya, Sophie Okonedo delivers one of the year’s most finely-tuned performances, moving between coquettishness, rejection and viperous jealousy in an instant, while maintaining the veneer of calm control. Alistair Petrie as her erstwhile paramour, Michel Rakitin, is also a standout, his heart quietly breaking as Natalya’s attention shifts towards her son’s younger and more virile tutor. Amanda Wilkin brings a wry humour to the snuff-possessed Lizaveta, while Mark Hadfield makes Herr Schaaf’s malapropisms a constant source of amusement.
There are a few strange moments when characters are left alone on stage and conduct an inner dialogue with themselves through an offstage recorded voice, but otherwise the evening stays on point, sustaining both momentum and interest.
The scenes are played on a grass-covered floor surrounded by foliage and tall grasses, with a large box covered in leaves descending over the entire stage to mask the scene changes. The maroon and brown costumes work particularly well against the green of the stage, creating an attractive, slightly dreamlike setting for a summer in which everyone seems to want something they cannot quite have.
By Brian Friel after Ivan Turgenev
Directed by Lyndsey Turner
Cast includes: Thomas Arnold, Jessica Brindle, Rachelle Diedericks, Patrick Gibson, Mark Hadfield, Michael Hodgson, Jonathan Livingstone, Sophie Okonedo, Alistair Petrie, Daniel Rigby, Amanda Wilkin
Designer: Leslie Travers
Until: 3 October
Running time: 2 ½ hours with 1 interval
Photo credit: Helen Murray