Anton Chekhov's untitled first play is presented in a new version by Andrew Upton and directed by John Crowley, centring around the 40th birthday celebrations of the beautiful young widow Anna Petrovna, played by Cate Blanchett.
Depending on when one enters the theatre prior to the show beginning proper a number of different Annas are to be found — one smoking, another staring absently, yet others drinking, reading, brandishing a gun with some intrigue — the theory of Chekhov's gun seems refined from the explosive exhibition the weekend descends into.
Toasts appear as the best thing since sliced bread, or a cure-all for awkward silences as old acquaintances with business unfinished once again assemble.
Father and son Yegor (David Downer) and Dimitri (Brandon McClelland) play their emotions at an appropriate distance, intriguingly impenetrable and adding a thrilling unease amid the performed and perceivable woe-is-me-ism that provides much of the dark comedy. Similarly, the initially cuckqueaned caricature of Sasha is proved misleading in a strong performance by Susan Prior.
And despite the making of a toast being a very present act, it is always in commemoration or preparation, of what has been and what may come. If the grass is always greener then more seeds must be sown or one another's lawns mowed, and the irony of that charges this tragicomedy, a combination embodied by both Richard Roxburgh and Blanchett.
