Downtown's Pure Pop 2000 festival of theatrical attractions continues on Aug. 25 with Anton Chekhov's On the High Road. The piece is part of a fest within the fest, "33 Swoons: A Portrait of Anton Chekhov."

The story concerns several characters stopping at an isolated inn in rural Russia. Featured in the cast are Kelly Nolan, Paul Pierog and Aleada Minton. Aaron Beall directs the play, which is staged at an actual bar in Nada Show World (the former Show World porno palace) in Midtown. Performances are at 7 and 10 PM.

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Pure Pop began with a new production of Chekhov's The Seagull at Off-Off Broadway's Nada Show World on Aug. 10.

The first Pure Pop festival, an off-shoot of the New York International Fringe Festival, was held in 1999 at various theatres on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Beall was one of three founders of the four-year-old Fringe Fest, the others being the Present Company's John Clancy and Jonathan Harris. Harris was dismissed after one year. Then, following the 1998 Fringe, Beall and Clancy had a falling out, resulting in Beall establishing his own, competing festival, Pure Pop. The Seagull was only the first offering of "33 Swoons." Mondays feature something called The Undiscovered Chekhov; Tuesdays and Wednesdays The Chekhov Vaudevilles and The Chekhov Sketchbook; Fridays, Chekhov on film; and the weekday shows will be run continuously on the weekends, along with The Letters of Olga Knipper (Chekhov's wife) on Sunday nights.

(Nada Show World presented The Chekhov works often referred to as "Vaudevilles" earlier this year. The festival began on Feb. 29 with The Chekhov Sketchbook, a piece adapted by Joseph Buloff and Luba Kadesen from the Russian's diaries. On the same evening, Chekhov's The Bear and Swan Song, both from 1888, opened.)

Tickets are $8.99-$12.99. Nada Show World is located at 671-675 Eighth Avenue. For information, call (212) 420-1466.

--By Robert Simonson