Review – The Butterfly

Review by Andreea Helen David.

“Art is my dream, my desire, my only reason for living”

Watching a Chekhov done well is like listening to a symphony, like eating your favourite cake without getting fat, food for the soul that’s what it is!

Last night was a night like that. Here we are in Ryabovsky’s studio, Simon D’Aquino covered in paint and pain of creation and starvation, soon to be invaded by Olga Dymov. Love their relationship, which is the spine of the rise and fall of our Butterfly but one of my favourite moments is the description of a painter’s hands… poetry, well adapted and well placed.

I could see the respect and care with witch the director Xinxi Du handled the play, like an old dusty book …I stepped back in time although the play was set in present of sorts – it had mobile phones – but the clothes and behaviour couldn’t go too far from Chekhov’s Russia.

Stereotypes are necessary in a work like this, and we have them aplenty. Love the Doctor, played with vodka in hand and truth by Matt Dean, the moral compass and best friend of the dim Dymov – just as I had imagined him – perfect casting of Christian Richard, the whirlwind that is Olga played masterfully by Alexandra Giorgiana Dobirceanu!

Alexandra like The Butterfly is the star of the show, she really is magnificent.

Dramatised by Ronald Selwyn Phillips, this Butterfly find it’s wings in Baron Court Theatre until the 17th of November. Do not miss it!

PERFORMANCES: (From Friday 18 October to Sunday 17 November) Tuesdays to Saturdays (7.45 p.m.) Sundays (6 p.m.)

TICKETS: £15 (£12 Concessions)

BOX OFFICE: 020 8932 4747

EMAIL BOOKINGS: Send details of performance and tickets required to londontheatre@gmail.com. Then pay for them, in cash, when you go to the theatre.