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.