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Anton in Eastbourne by Peter Tinniswood

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BBC Radio 4 Extra, 13 February 2013
 
First broadcast in 2002, Anton in Eastbourne is Tinniswood's hommage to Chekhov, especially written for the late Paul Scofield. It concerns the eponymous hero (Scofield), who spends most of his time in a Eastbourne, who befriends a much younger woman (Emma Fielding) and eventually persuades her to leave her boyfriend in London. Tinniswood has obviously taken a crash course in 'Chekhovian' drama; he leaves us in continual suspense as to whether Anton is fantasizing, or perceives himself as some kind of a soothsayer, or really believes that his life contains no coherent meaning. The play meanders along to no particular conclusion, other than to show the young lady participating - either willingly or unwillingly - in Anton's 'Chekhovian' word-games.
 
Anton in Eastbourne contains numerous examples of Tinniswood's unique gift; his ability to juxtapose words as much for their sound as their sense. His plays are very actor-friendly; and so it proved in Enyd Williams' production, with Scofield having the chance to employ a variety of vocal tones and shades, revelling in his ability to create word-pictures that both beguile and exasperate the young lady. Anton took an obvious pleasure in his craft, despite the modest surroundings in which he lived.
 
But I'm not sure whether Anton in Eastbourne is very 'Chekhovian' in tone. On the contrary, the play struck me as peculiarly British in its portrayal of an emotionally stunted central character who employs words to obfuscate rather than clarify what he wanted to say. The play lacked the shifts in tone and mood that one finds in a Chekhov play - even in translation. Maybe there's no such thing as a 'Chekhovian' style: I suggest the term describes the kind of writing that resists classification. I don't think one 'makes sense' of Chekhov; his plays are there to be experienced. Anton in Eastbourne is not really in the same class; but as an example of Tinniswood's own work, it's beguiling enough.