Theatre | The 10 Selected Productions

Platonov

By Anton Chekhov
German translation by Peter Urban

Burgtheater im Akademietheater, Vienna

Premiere 7 May 2011 Akademietheater

Platonov. Peter Simonischek, Martin Reinke, Sylvie Rohrer, Martin Wuttke, Dörte Lyssewski, Yohanna Schwertfeger © Georg Soulek

One almost has the feeling of looking inside a Big Brother container – if it wasn’t for the fact that the actors are wearing frock coats, stiff collars and starched blouses. Where generations of theatremakers once devoted their entire ambitions to ripping down the fourth wall, Alvis Hermanis puts it up again – with a radical intent which may never have existed before.

Public discussion 21st May 2012, 23:15
Haus der Berliner Festspiele, Kubus
Moderation Tobi Müller

As if locked behind glass, in this lovingly detailed décor where seemingly accidental but brilliantly choreographed social tableaux, great acting moments and perfect lighting states create the long vanished world of the financially and morally declining Russian provincial aristocracy of the 19th century – with the cynical village schoolteacher Platonov occupying the empty centre of this society. This production is compassionless and compelling; Alvis Hermanis’s view of Chekhov’s lost souls is cool, simultaneously keeping the audience at a distance while immersing them in a faraway world and time.

www.burgtheater.at

Directed by Alvis Hermanis
Stage design Monika Pormale
Costume design Eva Dessecker
Lighting design Gleb Filshtinsky
Dramaturgy Klaus Missbach

With:
Anna Petrovna Vojniceva, young widow, general Dörte Lyssewski
Sergej Pavlovič Vojnicev, General Vojnicev’s son of the first marriage Philipp Hauß
Sofia Egorovna, his wife Johanna Wokalek
Porfirij Semënovič Glagoljev 1 Peter Simonischek
Kirill Porfirjevič Glagoljev 2, his son Dietmar König
Gerasim Kuzmič Petrin Franz J. Csencsits
Pavel Petrovič Ščerbuk Hans Dieter Knebel
Marja Efimovna Grekova Yohanna Schwertfeger
Ivan Ivanovič Trileckij, retired colonel Roland Kenda
Nikolaj Ivanovič, his son, a young physician Martin Reinke
Abram Abramovič Vengerovič 1, a rich Jew Michael König
Isaak Abramovič 2, his son, student Fabian Krüger
Michail Vasiljevič Platonov, village schoolmaster Martin Wuttke
Aleksandra Ivanova (Saša), his wife, I.I. Trileckij’s daughter Sylvie Rohrer
Katja Brigitta Furgler

Platonov. Peter Simonischek, Martin Reinke, Sylvie Rohrer, Martin Wuttke, Dörte Lyssewski, Yohanna Schwertfeger

© Georg Soulek