by Anton Chekhov

'If all of us together, working as a community, devoted ourselves to science and art and the pursuit of truth, I'm convinced that the truth would be discovered very quickly, and mankind at last escape from his continual agonising dread of death - perhaps even from death itself!'

The first of a series of films, originally shown on Full House and 2nd House, in which eminent writers and directors were invited to dramatise short stories by Chekhov and Joyce. Tonight's film revolves around the confrontation of ideas between Anton, a landscape painter, and Lidya, a young aristocratic girl who devotes her life to good works.

With Meg Wynn Owen as Lidya, Patrick Stewart as Anton, Brenda Bruce as Ekaterina, Yona Gailit as Liubov, Philip Locke as Belokurov, Emma Williams as Zenya

(Brenda Bruce, David Jones, Philip Locke and Patrick Stewart are members of the Royal Shakespeare Company)