The Present is Andrew Upton's new adaptation of Anton Chekhov's first play, Platonov, which opened to acclaimed critical engagement in Sydney last August. Now, with an all-star cast including Cate Blanchett and Richard Roxburgh, The Present will be produced on Broadway by Stuart Thompson and the Sydney Theatre Company.
The venue, complete casting and an opening date for the production will be announced soon.
Anton Chekhov's untitled first play was not discovered until 1920, some 16 years after the playwright's death. Andrew Upton's new adaptation is set post-Perestroika in the mid '90s at an old country house where friends gather to celebrate the birthday of the independent but compromised widow Anna Petrovna (Blanchett). They may appear comfortable, but boiling away inside is a mess of unfinished, unresolved relationships, fuelled by 20 years of denial, regret and thwarted desire.
Cate Blanchett and Richard Roxburgh are making their Broadway debuts in The Present.
