Checking out Chekhov

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Three short plays by Anton Chekhov are being performed in Rye on Sunday, December 16, as a special one-off treat from Rye Arts Festival (RAF). The annual two-week Rye Arts Festival in late September has been a fixture of the Rye cultural scene for many years – indeed next year will be the 47th annual festival. This year the festival is offering a piece of theatre outside the normal season.chekhov6

It has teamed up with Alasdair Kitchen, the brilliant young director of both of the hugely acclaimed operas – Turn of the Screw and Don Pasquale – at the recent 2016 Rye Arts Festival, and a number of other operas at the festival including Cosi Fan Tutte and Don Giovanni in recent years.

But Alasdair and his company Euphonia Studio isn’t presenting opera for Christmas – instead they are presenting “straight” theatre with a programme of three short plays by Anton Chekhov.

And even more excitingly, challenging the commonly-held assumption that opera singers can’t act, Alasdair and his company, Euphonia Studio, will prove to the contrary in a highly entertaining triple-bill of short plays by the Russian playwright.chekhov7

Updated to a modern-day, north-of-England setting, The Proposal, On the Evils of Tobacco and The Bear feature a cast of young opera singers – Edward Jowle, Sophie Dicks and Hannah Jane Peel – using their voices in a completely different way to their usual ‘day jobs’… without singing a note. And they can act!

Rye Arts Festival chairman Mike Eve says: “Alasdair has proven himself to be a formidable talent in the last few years bringing opera productions to Rye that have surpassed all expectations and which have provided an early launchpad for so many young professional singers and musicians.chekhov8

“So when he came to us and said would we like to be involved with his new theatrical production we were delighted as we have no qualms that what he will bring will be of the highest quality.

“When Al says these superb young singers can act, I have no doubt that they can. And then some. I can’t wait for what promises to be a real treat.”

Rehearsed

The production is currently playing in London until Saturday December 10, at The Drayton Arms Theatre, so will be fully rehearsed by the time it arrives in Rye for a special one-off.

The performance is at Rye Creative Centre in New Road, Rye, at 4pm on Sunday December 18. And tickets are just £10. Tickets can be bought in advance online at: www.euphoniastudio.com/theatre or at Grammar School Records in the High Street or on the door.

A bar will be open and home-made mince pies from Rye Deli and mulled wine will be available after the performance.

The 2017 Rye Arts Festival will run from Saturday, September 16, to Saturday, September, 30.

Photos: courtesy Euphonia Studio

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