Platonov (Russian: Платонов, also known as Fatherlessness and A Play Without a Title)[1] is the

name in English given to an early, untitled play in four acts written by Anton Chekhov in 1878. It was
the first large-scale drama by Chekhov,[1] written specifically for Maria Yermolova, rising star of Maly
Theatre.[2] Yermolova rejected the play and it was not published until 1923.[1]

The lead character is Mikhail Platonov, a disillusioned provincial schoolmaster. The play is set in a
dilapidated country house in the Russian provinces. Landowner Anna Petrovna, Sofia Yegorovna, wife
of Anna Petrovna's stepson, and one of his colleagues fall in love with the married Platonov. He
thinks society is without ideas and principles, but is aware that he himself is very much part of that
society. He is compared to Hamlet and Don Juan, and likes to think of himself as a witty and
intellectually stimulating entertainer. In the end, he recognises his hopeless position between the
four women and retreats into alcohol. Finally, Sofia understands that she cannot hope for a new life
with Platonov and shoots him.

Performance history

A widely performed adaptation by playwright Michael Frayn, given the title Wild Honey, appeared in
1984.[3]

David Magarshack published an unabridged translation in 1964 at Faber and Faber.[4]

Chekhov's own text, which despite a running time of about five hours he never thought of as
finished, is seldom played. However, in 1997 the director Lev Dodin and the Maly Theatre of St
Petersburg presented a faithful, and once again untitled, version at the annual Weimar summer arts
festival Kunstfest Weimar [de],[5] presented at E-Werke, the city's former central power station.
Dodin cut nine characters (and their interlocking sub-plots) but replaced them with a nine-piece jazz
band.[6] The running time was four hours.[7] The production was taken to Saint Petersburg and
Milan later that year.[citation needed] Five performances were mounted at the Barbican Arts Centre,
London, in June 1999.[8]

The work has been adapted and produced at the Almeida Theatre in London in 2001 by David
Hare,[3] the Bristol Old Vic,[citation needed] and by the Soulpepper Theatre Company in Toronto.[9]
Hare's 2001 version was revived at the Chichester Festival Theatre in 2015[10] and subsequently
transferred to the Royal National Theatre in 2016.

A new version translated and adapted by Ilya Khodosh was produced at the Yale School of Drama in
October 2013.[11]

Andrew Upton adapted the play in 2015 under the title The Present for the Sydney Theatre Company
where it was directed by John Crowley and performed by Cate Blanchett (Anna), Richard Roxburgh
(Mikhail), Jacqueline McKenzie (Sophia), Marshall Napier (Ivan) and Toby Schmitz (Nikolai).[12] That
production transferred to Broadway at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre.[13] The play began previews on
December 17, 2016, opened January 8, 2017 and closed March 19, 2017.[14] The first time an all-
Australian cast has performed on Broadway,[15] it marked the Broadway debut for Blanchett,
Roxburgh, McKenzie and the rest of the cast.[16]