15 facts about the Young Chekhov set

The Young Chekhov trilogy’s technical team have turned the Olivier into a 19th-century Russian estate, complete with its very own lake. We’ve documented some of the numbers behind this, and how they’ve managed to achieve such a feat.
- The lake contains 35,000 litres of water. That’s 980(ish) showers or enough to fill almost three double-decker busses.
- The water is chlorinated to make sure it doesn’t go stagnant. The actors have to walk through it, and we don’t want to attract mosquitoes.
- While the show is out of rep, the water is kept in a huge tank backstage, meaning all that water will be here until October.
- There’s on-stage rain in The Seagull, which uses thousands more litres of water. There’s a system in place to make sure it can be reused and not flood the lake – or the auditorium, ideally
- There are between 40 and 50 trees in the trilogy, ranging from saplings to fully grown birch and larch.
- The trees are chosen from a managed forest called The Goodwood Estate. It’s more environmentally friendly to use these than false trees – to create 50 fake trees we’d have to use a lot of glue and polystyrene.
- There are reeds, too: a mixture of real and fake.
- Much of the long grass has been reused from King Lear (2014) and Moon on a Rainbow Shawl (2012). If it’s in one more production, it gets its own dressing room.
- Every plant is fireproofed and sprayed with binder to stop wilting and keep it together.
- The floor is made of wood from south of Paris. Once the production is over, it will be reused, either in another production or as recycling.
- The dirt mound is made from rubber crumb and foam, and painted to look like mud. So no muddy feet.
- Within the Drum Revolve, there are hydraulic lifts for the various set pieces. A lift called ‘The Toaster’ is used to move different flats in and out for all three shows: they move up and down like a toaster, hence the name.
- The sun in The Seagull comes through a giant floodlight. We borrowed this from the Welsh National Opera, who had it made bespoke for them. It was loaned to Chichester last year and now to us – thanks, WNO.
- The train track in Platonov is moved on stage during the show. To make it slightly less heavy, it’s actually wooden with a painted metallic effect.
- The island is made from polystyrene and covered in stage cloth, recycled from last year’s As You Like It. Its dream was to play the part of a forest floor, which it has now achieved on two occasions. The Olivier really is the theatre of dreams.
The Young Chekhov trilogy is made up of three plays: Platonov, Ivanov and The Seagull. To learn more and buy tickets, click here.