© Dedalus Editores, 2012
Three Plays After assembles The Bear, The Yalta Game, and Afterplay, each of which represents Friel's engagement with the work of Anton Chekhov.
The Bear in an adaptation of Chekov's play, in which the young widow, Elena, in mourning for one year, is stirred back into life despite her best efforts by Gregory. It was originally produced alongside Afterplay, which brings together in a chance encounter two characters from Chekhov's plays Three Sisters and Uncle Vanya. Andrey Prozorov and Sonya Serebriakova are now middle-aged, but cannot escape the circumstances of their earlier lives: Andrey is still an only boy, confused, motherless and living in the remote rural town of Taganrog; Sonya is still deeply and hopelessly in love with the local doctor.
The short play The Yalta Game is based on Chekhov's short story, 'The Lady with the Little Dog', and explores the story of an accountant who, while on holidays without his family, enjoys a brief affair with a young wife he meets in Yalta. Back home, they both find themselves obsessed by reveries and meet again to embark on a future of duplicity, ecstasy and perhaps of love.
The Gallery Press 2002
Translated into: Spanish
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