POPRYGUNYA

by Linnie Reedman
freely adapted from Chekhov's The Grasshopper

Greenwich Playhouse, Greenwich
8 - 27 May 2007

Olga is obsessed with celebrity, her husband with medical science, her lover with himself. In the background her dressmaker watches, crow-like, and weaves them all into her own dark fairytale. Meanwhile, Chekhov watches and weaves them too into his short story.

“…Will I be condemned and cursed? How decadent… and how lovely!”

Contemporary social commentators would have us believe that our modern-day obsession with celebrity is a fairly recent phenomenon. This story suggests otherwise. Based on Chekhov’s life experiences of Bohemian Russian society, it is a thinly veiled depiction of the affair between socialite Sophia Kuvshinnikov and Isaac Levitan, a renowned landscape painter and intimate friend of Chekhov. When it was first published, it caused outrage and scandal within his circle.

"You're splendid. Naked. Clothed. Always..."

Meet Anton Chekhov, Tchaikovsky, Sarah Bernhardt and Vera Komissarhevskaya, the first Nina to have performed in The Seagull, in this inventive mix of real life and fantasy, fact and fiction, truth and story telling.

With original music by composer Joe Evans, the score hints at references to the Russian folk music and other composers of the time; but is also influenced by more modern theatrical music such as The Tiger Lillies, Kurt Weill and Sondheim. The music is performed live by the actors and the musical director himself.