Chekhov’s famous short story of romance and infidelity is modernised and reimagined

... for the British Jazz Age.

The renowned short story by Anton Chekhov is returning to the UK stage and transported to Jazz Age Britain in a full-length bittersweet romantic comedy.

Chekhov’s short story The Lady With a Dog was described by Russian novelist Vladimir Nabokov as ‘one of the greatest stories ever written’, this adaptation by Mark Giesser is reimagined in a dazzling art-deco aesthetic with the affluent middle-class characters fully fleshed out to reveal more about their anxieties and desires.

Damian Granville – a banker, devoted family man and serial seducer – has an unconventional way of taking his summer holidays: he travels alone to pursue a new woman every year. This particular year he spots a beautiful young lady, Anne Dennis, walking a white Pomeranian dog and he cannot resist. In this contemporary adaptation, Anne serves as an allegory for the modern politician’s wife, often imprisoned by societal expectations and public image. So when this skilful player, sure of his success, discovers Anne isn’t quite what he bargained for, the two are torn between love and duty.

Writer and director Mark Giesser said, ‘The lovers in Chekhov's beautiful and poignant story live in an ordered world that they couldn't know was about to be shattered by the First World War’. In his modernised adaptation Giesser describes wanting to ‘explore how that event might have affected them and the relationship they develop, in a setting perhaps a bit closer to us than Chekhov's pre-war Russia.’

With new choreography and movement by Xena Gusthart (The Bodyguard, Bat out of Hell) the production will transcend the relevancy of three eras of time: 19th century Moscow and Yalta where the source material is set, 1920s Britain, and the present day that the story is a parable for.

Giesser is a much loved regular to appear at Upstairs at the Gatehouse having previously written How To Build a Better Tulip in 2022. The Lady With a Dog has previously played The White Bear and The Tabard in 2018.

The Lady With a Dog opens on September 13th and runs through to October 8th at Upstairs at The Gatehouse. Tickets are available at: www.upstairsatthegatehouse.com