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.