About the Book
Three exquisite masterpieces from Brian Friel, based on works by Chekhov: The Bear: A Vaudeville; Afterplay (where Sonya from Uncle Vanya and Andrey from Three Sisters meet), and The Yalta Game (from a theme in Chekhov's 1899 story, 'The Lady with the Lapdog').
The Yalta Game: from a theme in Chekhov's 1899 story 'The Lady with the Lapdog'
Two strangers meet on holiday and almost manage to convince one another that disappointments are 'merely the postponement of the complete happiness to come...'
The Bear: A Vaudeville
Elena Popova, a young and attractive widow, has immersed herself in the role of mourning for her philandering but now dead husband. Luka, her frail and ancient man-servant, tries in vain to snap her out of it. Then Smirnov barges in...
Afterplay
1920s Moscow, a small run-down café. Uncle Vanya's niece, Sonya Serebriakova, now in her forties, is the only customer. Until the arrival of the Three Sisters' put-upon brother Andrey Prozorov.
Two Plays After (Afterplay and The Bear) premiered at the Gate Theatre, Dublin, in March 2002 and Afterplay transferred to the Gielgud Theatre, London, in September 2002.
About the Author :
Brian Friel (9 January 1929 - 2 October 2015) wrote thirty plays across six decades and is widely regarded as one
of Ireland's greatest dramatists. He was a member of Aosdána, the society of Irish artists, the American Academy
of Arts and Letters, the Irish Academy of Letters, and the Royal Society of Literature where he was made
a Companion of Literature. He was awarded the Ulysses Medal by University College, Dublin.
Plays include Hedda Gabler (after Ibsen), The Home Place, Performances, Three Plays After (Afterplay, The Bear,
The Yalta Game), Uncle Vanya (after Chekhov), Give Me Your Answer Do!, Molly Sweeney (Winner of the New
York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Foreign Play), Wonderful Tennessee, A Month in the Country (after
Turgenev), The London Vertigo (after Charles Macklin), Dancing at Lughnasa (Winner of 3 Tony Awards including
Best Play, New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Play, Olivier Award for Best Play), Making History, The
Communication Cord, American Welcome, Three Sisters (after Chekhov), Translations, Aristocrats (Winner of the
Evening Standard Award for Best Play and New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Foreign Play), Faith
Healer, Fathers and Sons, Living Quarters, Volunteers, The Freedom of the City, The Gentle Island, The Mundy
Scheme, Crystal and Fox, Lovers: Winners and Losers, The Loves of Cass Maguire, and Philadelphia Here I Come!
Anton Chekhov, Russian dramatist and short-story writer, was born in 1860, the son of a grocer and the grandson of a serf. After graduating in medicine from Moscow University in 1884, he began to make his name in the theatre with the one-act comedies The Bear, The Proposal and The Wedding. His earliest full-length plays, Ivanov (1887) and The Wood Demon (1889), were not successful, and The Seagull, produced in 1896, was a failure until a triumphant revival by the Moscow Art Theatre in 1898. This was followed by Uncle Vanya (1899), Three Sisters (1901) and The Cherry Orchard (1904), shortly after the production of which Chekhov died. The first English translations of his plays were performed within five years of his death.
