Uncle Vanya at the Orange Tree Theatre review – Ted Lasso’s James Lance treads the boards in Richmond

It’s surprising that over his long career, the 84-year-old Trevor Nunn, who considers Chekhov second only to Shakespeare, has never directed Uncle Vanya before. Orange Tree artistic director Tom Littler started his career as an assistant to Nunn, and the association continued under Littler’s artistic directorship of the Jermyn Street Theatre. Nunn’s recent work has been questionable (the musical version of The Third Man at the Menier Chocolate Factory last year was a particularly low point) but fortunately, this production (also adapted by Nunn) highlights his strengths and makes for a staging that does the job satisfactorily.

Visually, it’s ultra-traditional, with a table set for tea (and vodka), in an elegant and unfussy design by Simon Daw. A faithful retainer (Juliet Garricks as former nanny Marina) sits knitting. It’s provincial Russia at its typically languorous, the ennui punctuated by balalaika music (including contributions from David Ahmad as estate tenant Ilya ‘Waffles’ Tegin).

Nunn’s production is strong at capturing the absurdity and fragile mental health of the characters, showing that Chekhov can be funny in a droll way. As Vanya, James Lance is sardonic and stroppy in having his routine disrupted by the return of his brother-in-law (William Chubb is perfectly insufferable as Professor Alexander Serebryakov, a “dry fish with a doctorate”). Lance is best known for television comedy (including the Richmond-set Ted Lasso) and there’s a sense of Vanya as a frustrated stand-up comedian – it would be one way for his mid-life crisis to get some attention.

Andrew Richardson was a real find as a Clark Gable-esque Sky Masterson in Nicholas Hytner’s Guys & Dolls at the Bridge Theatre and he confirms this promise as Mikhail Astrov, the handsome doctor and ardent environmentalist who’s heading towards a breakdown, and has a not inconsiderable amount of entitlement when it comes to women. A significant costume drama role ought to beckon in order to bring Richardson to a wider audience.

Uncle Vanya doesn’t work if Sonya doesn’t break your heart and there’s an excellent performance by Madeleine Gray as Vanya’s poor, lovely, do-gooding niece, who is so wide-eyed and childlike, she resembles a young teacher trying to control a class of unruly pupils. Her hard work is in direct contrast to the languidness of her young stepmother Yelena (Lily Sacofsky), doll-like and Dickensian with her golden curls and white dress. Together, Gray and Sacofsky remind me of Melissa Gilbert and Melissa Sue Anderson as Laura and Mary Ingalls on Little House on the Prairie, imbuing a welcome sense of giddiness to the proceedings as stepmother and stepdaughter come together like sisters, laughing and crying over vodka.

This isn’t going to reinvent the samovar as to how Chekhov is done (it isn’t a trendy take like Andrew Scott’s recent one-man version), but it is well done. The characters complain about their boredom but it remains quietly compelling throughout. The Orange Tree’s wonderfully intimate in-the-round space is uniquely suited to country house plays and their productions, particularly period pieces, are famous for their ensemble casts (Susan Tracy also deserves a mention as the Professor’s doting mother-in-law) – a fine example of which can be found here.