Cherry Orchard

Simon Stephens began his theatrical career in the literary department of the Royal Court Theatre, where he ran its Young Writers' Programme. His plays for theatre include Bluebird; Herons; Port; One Minute; Christmas; Country Music; On the Shore of the Wide World; Motortown; Pornography; Harper Regan; Sea Wall; Heaven; Punk Rock; The Trial of Ubu; A Thousand Stars Explode in the Sky (co-written with David Eldridge and Robert Holman); Marine Parade (co-written with Mark Eitzel); T5; Wastwater; Morning; an adaptation of A Doll's House; an adaptation of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time; Birdland and Blindsided. His radio plays include Five Letters Home to Elizabeth and Digging. His screenwriting includes an adaptation of Motortown; the two-part serial Dive (with Dominic Savage) and a short film adaptation of Pornography. Awards include the Pearson Award for Best New Play, 2001, for Port; Olivier Award for Best New Play for On the Shore of the Wide World, 2005; and for Motortown German critics in Theater Heute's annual poll voted him Best Foreign Playwright, 2007.

Now Chekhov's final and finest play, from 1903, is the latest twentieth-century masterpiece to get a good going-over. Actually, make that an excellent going-over . . . It's been pruned, yes, but this grimly witty tragicomedy is unmistakably Chekhov . . . and it teems with life.