The Wood Demon

Summary: 1974 BBC production of The Wood Demon by Anton Chekhov.
Theatre play: The Wood Demon by Anton Chekhov (1860-1904) [more information]
Play synopsis: Comedic precursor to Uncle Vanya. ‘It is Leo Zheltukhin’s birthday and to mark the occasion his friends and neighbours are joining him for lunch. Among them are Alexander Serebryakov, a retired professor, and his second wife, the young and beautiful Helen. They have continued to live on his first wife’s estate after her death and share the house with his dead wife’s mother and her son George. It is an arrangement which leads to tragedy’ (Radio Times, 14 November 1974, p. 37).
Production history: The play was written in 1888 and staged in 1889 at the Abramov Theatre. Eight years after this play failed, Chekhov returned to the work. He reduced the cast list by half, changed the climatic suicide into an anti-climax of a failed homicide, and published the reworked play, much more successfully, under the title Uncle Vanya.
Date of transmission: Sunday 17 November 1974
Time: 8.15-10.05pm
Series: Play of the Month
Channel: BBC1
Production company: BBC

Director

Donald McWhinnie

Producer

Cedric Messina

Lighting

Sam Barclay

Playwright

Anton Chekhov (1860-1904)

Translator

Ronald Hingley

Musician

Tom McCall (pianist)

Designer

Natasha Kroll

Costume Designer

Dorothea Wallace

Cast

Title: The Wood Demon (BBC, 1974)
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