Ivanov

Nikolai has forgotten how to be happy. Or was he ever? Is it just burnout? He’s married to the perfect woman, he’s had a successful career: he should be heading into mid-life feeling confident and settled. Sure there’s some debts piling up, and his wife has been laid low with unexplained illnesses recently but they’ve jumped bigger hurdles before. What exactly is gnawing at him? Why does the world feel like it’s falling apart? Maybe he just needs to shake it off. There’s a party at the Lebedevs tonight!

As he tumbles from misstep to faux-pas Nikolai tries to resuscitate his lust for life. Anna sacrificed everything to marry him: her conservative parents even disowned her because of his political leanings. He knows he owes her happiness. He just can’t seem to remember where he left it. Not that going out partying every night is helping her opinion of him very much. But the alternative is staying at home and letting her see how miserable he is. Something needs to change, they all know it. Except when change comes it’s in the absurd, undignified form life often presents it to us in: an affair.

Can Nikolai save his marriage, his will to live, and his career all at once? Or was it always destined to go tits up?

Simon Stone brings Chekhov’s keenly observed comic drama hurtling into the contemporary world, joined by the same creative team that brought the “fantastically original, gripping and magnificent” (The Guardian) The Lady from the Sea to life.

Written and directed by Simon Stone (The Lady from the Sea, Yerma, Phaedra), starring Chris Pine in his London stage debut.

Ivanov is presented by London Theatre Company in collaboration with Wouter van Ransbeek