Afterplay
Theatre
September 8 - 12, 2015
Old 505 Theatre, 505/342 Elizabeth St
, Surry Hills, NSW
Website: https://www.sydneyfringe.com/
Description
Director and Founder of Room To Play productions and the Brisbane Youth Theatre company, Heidi Manchė, presents award-winning Irish dramatist’s Brian Friel’s poetic one act play, Afterplay at this year’s Sydney Fringe Festival 8-12 September at Old 55 Theatre. Friel is widely celebrated for his portrayal of social and political life in Ireland, his theatrical masterpiece Dancing at Lughnasa and translations of famed Russian playwright and author Anton Chekhov.Afterplay revisits the lives of two characters: Sonya, Uncle Vanya’s dutiful niece and Andrey, the downtrodden intellectual brother of The Three Sisters created by Chekhov 100 years ago.
From two different fictional backgrounds we meet them again after twenty years. They meet by chance in a late night cafe in 1920\'s Moscow. The concert violinist and determined estate owner cannot escape their origins and those circumstances furnished by their creator are still determining their lives. Part of Andrey is still an only boy, confused, motherless, reared in a remote provincial town by a domineering father and his three restless sisters. Sonya is still wrestling with a difficult estate and is still deeply and hopelessly in love with the local doctor as she was all those years ago.
Twenty years after their original plays and in their middle age they find a comfortable anticipation in their encounter. There is promise in their meeting until their stories unfold and the glow of their fantasies makes way for reality to reclaim the tragic identities of these cherished characters.
Directed and produced by Heidi Manchė and featuring Emma Skelton as Sonya and Wayne Bassett as Andrey.
\"Afterplay is beautifully and tenderly written and significantly adds to the Chekhov canon.\"
British Theatre Guide
“Friel inhabits the characters so masterfully you are ultimately less preoccupied with the backstory than increasingly fearful for their future.” The Guardian
“It feels a lot like eavesdropping on a somewhat raucous table next to you...Stage Review