Theatre review: A Month in the Country

Ivan Turgenev predates Chekhov by a few decades but his work certainly shows him as a likely influence on the more celebrated playwright's world of terminally disappointed upper middle classes turning ennui into their whole personality - or at least Brian Friel's adaptation of A Month in the Country suggests as much. Lyndsey Turner's production at the Donald and Margot Warehouse moves the action from sitting rooms to a greenhouse, which in Lesley Travers' design rises to reveal the household of Natalya (Sophie Okonedo) and her husband Arkady (Thomas Arnold.) The couple have a young son as well as a 17-year-old ward, Vera (Rachelle Diedericks,) and after a series of stuffy old men they have decided to employ a 24-year-old recent graduate from a lower-class background as their latest tutor.

Vera takes a shine to Aleksey (Patrick Gibson) but so does Natalya, and while the tutor is embarrassed by the idea that his young student might have got the wrong idea, the glamour of the older woman and the difference in their station means he returns her interest.

Friel's play leans more heavily on the comic side of the tragicomic potential in a play with very little actually happening, but a lot of characters caught up in infatuations that are doomed to end in disappointment. So Natalya's old friend Michel (Alistair Petrie) has long been in love with her, but she's too emotionally dependent on him to entirely disabuse him of his hopes; the clueless Arkady realises his wife's affections lie elsewhere, but always manages to get the wrong end of the stick.

Probably the darkest turn the story takes is Natalya going along with the suggestion that Vera marry a local landowner 30 years her senior because it'll remove her as a potential rival for Aleksey, who has of course charmed her for reasons of acting.

Vera ultimately finds a pragmatic way around her romantic dilemmas and Turgenev seems to suggest this is the way to avoid a lot of heartbreak: Arkady's mother Anna (Susan Brown) has maintained a fond memory of her late husband by accepting the fact that he had a mistress, the local doctor (Transphobia Ltd Employee Daniel Rigby) and Anna's companion Lizaveta (Amanda Wilkin) make a businesslike marriage arrangement they seem happy with, and the only complication in servants Matvey (Jonathan Livingstone) and Katya (Jessica Brindle) getting together turns out to be their busy workloads.

Friel's version of the play balances heartbreak and disappointment with a bit of hope and a lot of witty lines - there's also Mark Hadfield's German visitor whose only purpose at the house seems to be to deliver malapropisms - but what was really notable to me was that, even watching this very tired after a few days ill, I found the time absolutely flew by. Not a lot happens on the surface, but the cast in Turner's intimate production - which is even blocked properly, unusually for the Donmar - give us a whole lot of life changes going on underneath.

A Month in the Country by Brian Friel after Ivan Turgenev is booking until the 3rd of October at the Donmar Warehouse.

Running time: 2 hours 25 minutes including interval.

Photo credit: Helen Murray.