The Lady with A Dog adapted from the story by Anton Chekhov by Mark Geisser. Upstairs at the Gatehouse, Highgate Village, London N6 to 8th October 2023. 3***: William Russell

The Lady with A Dog adapted from the story by Anton Chekhov by Mark Geisser. Upstairs at the Gatehouse, Highgate Village, London N6 to 8th October 2023.

3***: William Russell

Mark Geisser, who also directs this well cast revival of his play, has moved Chekhov’s short story from Yalta at the turn of the last century to 1923 and included the partners of the predatory man and the lady. The production has been seen before with Beth Burrows as the Lady but in smaller theatres which may account for the decision to mike the cast although The Gatehouse is not exactly cavernous. By the time others see it this will have been fixed but on press night the sound system was playing up disastrously so that lines sounded gabbled and at times the cast seemed to be performing in some distant other world rather than a few feet away. The time switch allows the protagonists to look back to the Great War and to belong to a world that is changing, but it is doing so in a completely different way from the one Chekhov set his characters. Geisser might have been better to have started from scratch. But the players are fine. Burrows is appealing as the lady falling reluctantly for the suave and predatory man played with style by Richard Lynson– married to a cold wife he holidays alone in spa towns where ladies on their own are romanced and dropped . The dog, a Pomeranian, is the excuse for meeting this particular victim although what happens is not what he plans. He falls in love. And reluctantly so does she. We get a pretend dog which is funny but distracting to say the least. Laura Glover is incisive as the chilly wife who knows what her husband gets up to and Toby Manley creates a bumbling and rather dim self satisfied figure as the lady’s dull but good natured husband. Gate House regulars will probably enjoy Geisser’s play well enough but Chekhov should sue.

Cast

Beth Burrows – Anne Dennis.

Ricard Lynson – Damian Granville.

Laura Glover – Elaine Granville.

Toby Manley – Carl Dennis.

Creatives

Director –Mark Gieser.

Choreographer/Movement Director – Zena Gusthart.

Costume Designer – Alice McNicholas.

Lighting Designer - Sam M Owen.

Set Design – Intellectual Property.

House Technician – Alistair Warr.

Production Photograph – Flavia Fraser Canon