Oscar-winning actress Cate Blanchett is as distinguished on stage as she is on film. As Irina Arkadina, the over-the-hill, over-the-top actress of Chekhov’s play, she is both venomous and vulnerable, clinging to her younger lover, best-selling writer Trigorin (Tom Burke) while deriding the playwriting aspirations of her son Konstantin (Kodi Smit-McPhee).
Mean spirited and just plain mean – “I don’t have the money” she wails when asked for financial help, “It costs a fortune to be me!” – she delivers a fabulous performance in director Thomas Ostermeier’s fabulous ensemble production. Fading star Irina arrives at her country estate where Konstantin is presenting his new play, an experimental end-of-the-world borefest featuring Nina (Emma Corrin), the wannabe actress with whom he is besotted.
Other occupants include a smug womanising doctor Dorn (Paul Bazely), the mousy, lovelorn and chronically depressed Masha (Tanya Reynolds) and Irina’s ailing brother Peter (Jason Watkins).
Dominated by a thicket of tall, reed-like grass, through which characters appear and disappear, plus a scattering of folding chairs, Duncan Macmillan’s contemporary adaptation may not be conventional Chekhov but it captures the playwright’s merciless yet compassionate view of his characters.
Blanchett is mercurial as Irina, whether dancing in a desperate attempt to recapture her youthful spirit or removing her blouse and humiliating herself in an attempt to redirect Trigorin’s attention away from the starstruck Nina.
Burke is coolly arrogant as Trigorin whose calm demeanour hides a cancerous regret for his missed youth and a reptilian vanity and that has terrible consequences.
Blasts of The Stranglers’ hit Golden Brown (a song about heroin addiction) punctuate the action, providing an undercurrent of bittersweet melancholy to the often very funny ensemble performances and dialogue that interrogates the purpose of theatre itself as well as exploring the regrets, disappointments, unfulfilled dreams and misaligned romantic attractions of every character.
A dazzling, powerfully entertaining night.