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Exploring the Limitless Depths: Mike Alfreds Directs Chekhov

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 January 2009

David Allen
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Abstract

‘Deadly British productions of Chekhov remain all too common.’ Or so suggests David Allen, who finds in the Chekhov productions of Mike Alfreds a refreshing recognition of the distinctively ‘Russian’ qualities of the plays, and an ability to render these in terms of the choices available to British actors. Mike Alfreds founded the Shared Experience company in 1975, and in Theatre Quarterly No. 39 (1981). Clive Barker interviewed him and members of the company on the processes of collective creation through which most of their productions then evolved: the present feature thus in part reflects Alfreds's own developing interest in working on ‘fixed’ scripts, both with Shared Experience, for whom he directed Three Sisters earlier this year, and in his work as guest director of The Cherry Orchard, first for Oxford Playhouse in 1982, and subsequently for the National Theatre at the Cottesloe, in 1985. In the following interview, Mike Alfreds's own perceptions of his work are intercut with author David Allen's observations during rehearsals, and the subsequent reactions of the critics.

Type
Research Article
Information
New Theatre Quarterly , Volume 2 , Issue 8 , November 1986 , pp. 320 - 335
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1986

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References

Note and References

1. Quoted in Shared Experience: 1975–1984.

2. Shulman, Milton, Evening Standard, 12 1985Google Scholar.

3. Jones, David, interview in New Theatre Voices of the Seventies. ed. Trussler, Simon (London: Methuen, 1982)Google Scholar.

4. Elsom, John, The Listener, 10 1981Google Scholar.

5. Shared Experience: 1975–1984.

6. McFerran, Anne, Time Out, 10 1981Google Scholar.

7. Elsom, John, The Listener, 10 1981Google Scholar.

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9. Billington, Michael, The Guardian, 08 1982Google Scholar.

10. Ibid.

11. Chaillet, Ned, The Times, 08 1982Google Scholar.

12. Billington, Michael, The Guardian, 08 1982Google Scholar (my italics).

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20. I am grateful to Nick Ward for suggesting this example to me.

21. Ratcliffe, Michael, The Observer, 12 1985Google Scholar.

22. In interview with Clive Barker in Theatre Quarterly, Vol. X No. 39 (1981).

23. In interview with Nick Smurthwaite in The Stage, 12 1985.

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26. Ibid.

27. Warner, Marina, ‘Critics’ Forum', BBC Radio Three, 19 04 1986Google Scholar.

28. Billington, Michael, The Guardian, 04 1986Google Scholar.

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30. Billington, Michael, The Guardian, 04 1986Google Scholar.

31. Ibid.