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A Month in the Country, After Turgenev (Friel)
A Month in the Country, After Turgenev (Friel)
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Author: Brian Friel, adapted from Turgenev Publisher: Dramatists Play Service Format: Softcover # of Pages: 105 Pub. Date: 1993 ISBN-10: 0822213427 ISBN-13: 9780822213420 Cast Size: 5 women, 7 men
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About the Play:
A Month in the Country is a full-length comedic drama by
Brian Friel, adapted from Turgenev. The classically
moving comedy of Natalya, the frustrated wife of a landowner, whose
schemes for the forbidden love of her son's handsome and vibrant
young tutor Aleksey come close to destroying both her long time lover
Michel and the life of her vulnerable, suffering ward Vera.
A Month in the Country is a study of the cruel inequality
of love, mingling tragedy and comedy, laughter and tears. Natalya
Petrovna, once wooed and won over by the rich landowner Arkady
Sergeyevich, has now suffered a long and frustrating marriage. She
has taken comfort in the love of Michel, a family friend, but even he
has come to represent the same kind of boredom Natalya finds with her
doting husband. Instead, it is Aleksey, her son's dashing
twenty-one-year-old tutor, whom Natalya now desires. Natalya's
beautiful and energetic ward Vera, though, can't help but compete for
Aleksey's affections, being so close to him in age. How to position
herself between Aleksey and Vera, then, becomes Natalya's obsession
during the hot summer days, and when she learns that a neighbouring
landowner wants to marry Vera, Natalya seizes the chance to remove
the only obstacle between her and seducing away the young Aleksey.
Heartbreaking though the consequences may be for Vera – her suitor,
you see, is almost 60 – Natalya goes to increasingly dangerous ends
to encourage the match while simultaneously wooing Aleksey. Risking
her home, her marriage and even the only man who's ever sworn to
stand by her, proves to be too much. Abandoned in the end by everyone
but her husband, Natalya's situation comes to represent the
thoroughly modern predicament of never being satisfied with what one
has.
A Month in the Country, in a version by Brian Friel,
premiered in 1992 at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin; revived in 1998 by
the RSC at the Swan in Stratford-upon-Avon, in 1999 at The Pit in
London, and in 2015 at The Gate Theatre in Dublin. The play has become a favourite scene study vehicle in acting classes and workshops and is regularly performed in regional repertory, college, and community theatre productions.
Cast: 5 women, 7 men.
What people say:
"This adaptation's language,
tone, personalities, and even themes are clearly Friel's … sharp …
funny … a unique sound and compelling depth. Turgenev's classic is
energized, more entertaining, fresher." — TheaterWeek
"A masterly triumph …
sensitive …superlative … impeccable…." — The
Irish Independent
"…a marvelously rich evening
of theatre…." — Irish Times
About the Playwright:
Brian
Friel (1929-2015) was an Irish dramatist, theatre director and
author. One of Ireland's greatest playwrights, he was a leading
voice on stages on both sides of the Atlantic. He received his
college education in Derry, Maynooth and Belfast and taught at
various schools in and around Derry from 1950 to 1960. Often
described as the "Irish Chekhov," he has penned more than
30 plays in a career spanning six decades.
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Brian Friel, adapted from the novel by Ivan Turgenev
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