Play Without A Name Essay

Wild Honey, written by Michael Frayn, is an adaptation of The Play Without a Name by Anton Chekhov. Anna Petrovna, a landowner and widow, returns to her family’s country estate after spending several months in Moscow. The neighbors come to greet her, including Gerasim Kuzmich Petrin, a wealthy merchant, Porfiry Semyonovich Glagolyev, a local landowner, Dr. Triletsky, the district doctor, and Platanov, the schoolmaster, along with Sasha, his wife. Sergey, Anna Petrovna’s stepson, introduces his new bride, Sofya to the group. Anna Petrovna makes it very clear that she wants Patronov to leave his wife, and comes to his cabin one night to lead him away. At the same time, Sofya, Sergey’s wife, also makes a play for Platanov. Sasha leaves Patronov, and he lives alone in the cabin. The three women slowly close in on him, and the play ends with Platanov running down the train tracks, and getting run …show more content…
Although the play is intended to be performed as a farce, there was an unfortunate disconnect between the actors and the unity of their performances. While some of the actors were in the realm of farce in terms of the delivery of their text, others, such as the actress who played Anna Petrovna, strayed more towards melodramatic performances. The play as a whole was not representative of Chekhov’s farcical play, as those who strayed towards melodramatic performances brought down the energy and the tension. Upon my reading of the play, I understood Platanov’s internal conflict between his marriage and the insatiable emptiness inside of him. However, in this production, I could not see any reason why Platanov wanted to abandon his wife and child, as it seemed as though he had no clear internal conflict at all; he just seemed bored. Furthermore, it was unclear in performance as to why Anna Petrovna, Sofya, and Sasha were romantically interested in Patronov, as he truly had no redeeming