The ever-so-Russian Anton Chekhov tends to be a constant of the London stage, but it is nonetheless rare to find three of his plays-well, two, and a third directly inspired by him―opening in the capital within four days of one another. And yet, that very scenario is currently offering London theatregoers a crash course in the crushed hopes and unfulfilled dreams that fuel the writings of the doctor-turned-dramatist, whose work retains its full potency and force a century or more after its birth. Small wonder, as one English actor, Sir Ian McKellen once put it, that Chekhov has "nearly been domesticated as an English playwright." To see "Ivanov", "Uncle Va-nya", and Brian Friel's Chekhov-themed "Afterplay" in quick succession is to glimpse the Anglo-Irish theatre's abiding empathy with dramatic literature's premier poet of the misspent life.
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