Leaving Eden
A Tragicomedy Inspired by Chekhov’s Life and Stories
Leaving Eden is inspired by Chekhov’s life and stories. Fifteen characters appear and disappear and reappear in Russia over a span of twenty-five years (1880-1905); and then somehow they all end up at a wedding reception in New York City in the present. The characters are at once comic and tragic and their journeys complex in the tradition of Chekhov.
Cast Requirements
3 men (1 Asian-American)
4 women
Set Description
Flexible
Publisher
Thousand Years Waiting and Other Plays
Seagull Books
Press
“In Leaving Eden, we are recognizably in the same world as in the great Chekhov plays. The epilogue, harsh in its comic ironies, brings Chekhov himself on stage, as well as descendants of some of the characters from earlier scenes. Ms. Miyagawa allows us to retain some belief in the idea of progress, but is skeptical that we will ever get back to any sort of Eden.”
—Dallas Morning News
Production and Development History
Commissioned: The Meadows School of the Arts, Southern Methodist University Graduate Acting Program (2004)
Production: SMU (2005).
Reading: Mondays@3 at New York Theatre Workshop (2006).
Workshop: Teatro Vista (2007).