THE first pictures from rehearsals for a major new season of Anton Chekhov’s early works at Chichester Festival Theatre can now be seen.

Newly adapted by David Hare and directed by Jonathan Kent, the productions present a unique theatrical event which will see a repertory cast of 23 actors performing 50 parts in Platonov, Ivanov and The Seagull.

For the first time ever on this scale, audiences will be given the opportunity to see all three shows in close proximity performed by the same group and with the same creative team.

As the season begins previews this week, the Young Chekhov cast will have worked together on the productions for three months. The cast includes Emma Amos, Nebli Basani, Lucy Briers, Pip Carter, Anna Chancellor, Jonathan Coy, Nicholas Day, Mark Donald, Peter Egan, Col Farrell, Joshua James, Beverley Klein, Adrian Lukis, Des McAleer, James McArdle, Mark Penfold, Brian Pettifer, Nina Sosanya, Sarah Twomey, David Verrey, Olivia Vinall, Samuel West and Jade Williams.

Each of the three plays can be seen as a single performance or they can be enjoyed as one event, either over different days or as one intense theatrical experience on Trilogy Days.

This season within a season is anchored by a trio of talent – Chekhov himself, playwright David Hare, and director Jonathan Kent, returning to Chichester following his triumphant production of Gypsy in Festival 2014. Young Chekhov reunites Kent and Hare who have previously collaborated on productions for the Almeida Theatre.

These three plays, written when Anton Chekhov was young, offer a new perspective on the dramatist, revealing a youthful anger and romanticism that is very different to his mature, more familiar work.

The central character in Platonov is a debt-ridden schoolteacher who is about to lose his home, yet remains irresistible to women. This freewheeling comedy set in the middle of nowhere explores the traps of conventionality and moral hypocrisy.

Nikolai Ivanov is a councillor and landowner who has tried to live in a bold new way, taking risks in everything from business to romance. Now his estate is failing and his wife is dangerously ill. Ivanov is an angry and outspoken satire, full of a passion that Chekhov would forego in his later plays.

In The Seagull, a bold new play by a young writer is about to be staged. What happens during the performance, and in the days that follow it, will change the lives of everyone involved.

The best known of the Young Chekhov trilogy is a meditation on love and art that’s both comic and tragic.

The Young Chekhov season runs until November 14.

For tickets, call the box office on 01243 781312 or visit cft.org.uk