Uncle Vanya

Synopsis

Set on a crumbling country estate, Uncle Vanya is the tale of two obsessive love affairs that lead nowhere, and a flirtation that brings disaster. The irascible Vanya and his niece Sonya have managed the estate on behalf of their relative, a renowned Professor for the last twenty-five years. Now retired, the Professor and his beautiful young wife come to visit, throwing the household into disarray, igniting hidden passions and old grudges. Family ties are tested further when the ageing and gout-ridden Professor announces his plans to sell the estate and live off the proceeds in the city. By turns comic, tragic, romantic, and wistful, Chekhov's play is an unforgettable study of unfulfilled dreams and unrequited love. One of his four great masterpieces written on the eve of the twentieth century, it features a feast of subtle comic portraits of a family at logger heads with each other and the world around them, that still has resonance at the start of another new century.

Our Review:

10 April 2012

We appear to be in the middle of a glut of Vanyas this spring, this is the second in a batch of three. I don’t know what the other two are going to be like but Jeremy Harrin’s production, sets a high standard.

Michael Frayn’s translation sparkles and captures Chekhov’s comic touch brilliantly but as is often the case, the comedy captures some important truths about human emotions.

At the heart of the production is Roger Allam’s Vanya, less the “holy innocent” but a man full of resentment and bitterness.

What Allam brings out so well is the emotional immaturity of the man. This is a man who has been suffocated through duty and through boredom and Allam gives us the full range of his arrested state : he gazes at Yelena with puppy-dog admiration like a member of the lower sixth in the throes of his first love and like any teenager, he has a fantastic range of sighs and petty flounces.

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Latest User Review

JR - 4 July 2012:

I'm not a gargantuan Chekhovian, but I have to say that this nearly converted me. With its pretty set (live silver birches 'growing' out of the stage) and good actors, perfectly capturing the mood of a bored Russia, there was little to fault it with. Roger Allam was very good, and Timothy West bought a touch of humour to the cantankerous Serebryakov. One rather odd thing though: Maggie Steed, a good performer, stayed on stage but said barely anything. But all good really; Acts 1 and 2 took a while to get going, but 3 and 4 were exciting and, using loud gunshot noises on stage coupled with an electrifying Allam, quite thrilling. ...

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