The Harmful Effects of Tobacco, and Can Cause Death, by Anton Chekhov and Alison Carr, Northern Stage, Newcastle (From The Northern Echo)

The Harmful Effects of Tobacco, and Can Cause Death, by Anton Chekhov and Alison Carr, Northern Stage, Newcastle

2:54pm Friday 18th February 2011 in Theatre

THE fact that Anton Chekhov and Alison Carr have the same initials seems poignant even though they are separated by more than 100 years of literature.

What brings them together can only be described are pure innovation.

Chekhov’s short lecture On The Harmful Effects of Tobacco is a one-act monologue with only one character, Ivan Ivanovich Nyukhin, a smoker, who has been told by his wife to give a lecture about the harmful effects of tobacco.

He tells us this will be a dry and boring lecture, but always postpones the subject matter by talking about his problems with his dominant wife.

At the end of his monologue, his tells us his wife is waiting in the wings and he begs the audience not to betray him.

He walks silently towards a box in the corner and removes his jacket to dress himself in a fancy bodice, a long skirt, leather gloves, a hat with wig and a black necklace.

Nyukhin’s jacket is laid symbolically in the box with a kiss as Popova retrieves a hidden bottle of white wine.

And so we meet the irritating and slightly inebriated wife, and local playwright Alison Carr’s wonderful companion monologue, Can Cause Death.

David Bradley plays both nervous husband and dominant wife with seamless professionalism and superb compassion for both characters.

Chekhov and Carr might sound an unlikely combination, but it is pure experimental, laugh-out-loud genius.

Helen Brown