I was expecting something plodding and staid, after all principal actors from the Maly Theatre of St Petersburg first performed this piece in London in 2005 and I was sceptical that it could feel fresh and energised after years of repetition. I'm happy to report that I was wrong, this is an exquisite, often revelatory production of the melancholy Russian masterpiece that is both poignant and laugh-out-loud funny.If you’re new to Chekhov, you may find his plays an acquired taste. The master of naturalism is one of those writers who expresses a great deal, slowly, whilst nothing much actually happens, whilst at the same time everything happens, and the smallest details of his characters behaviour reflects fathomless depths of the human experience powered by deeply felt joy and despair. A great production will touch and move you with its quietly devastating eloquence but you do have to concentrate as there’s little “what-happens-next?” story-lining to engage you.
In UNCLE VANYA an upper middle class household counter the crushing boredom of isolated country life with bickering and flirtations that leave them depressed and suffocated. The title character has been thanklessly running his brother-in-law, Serebryakov’s estate for ten years. This proprietor is a frustrated academic with a beautiful, much younger wife, Elena, who inflames the passions of Vanya and his best friend Astrov, the local Doctor. He in turn is pursued by the “plain” looking Sonia who he barely notices.
Tempers fray when the professor proposes selling the house and land whilst the various would-be lovers realise their desires can never be satisfied. All this is played on an open stage, with minimal furniture, beneath huge haystacks that seem to oppress everything with the practicalities of farm life even as the characters strive for higher meaning and purpose.
Presumably Both Sergey Kuryshev as Vanya & Igor Chernevich as Astrov were the right age to play the forty somethings when the production premiered. Now they’re way too old to be credible but there’s ample compensation to be had from how deeply they inhabit the roles and age brings a deeper despair, dignity and indignity to their clumsy seductions.
I loved Igor Ivanov as the professor, far more brooding and haunted then he’s usually played, and Ksenia Rappaport as Elena his wife gives a performance that laces melancholia with flashes of desperate wit. Ekaterina Tarasova is far too beautiful to convince as the ugly duckling, Sonia, but none-the-less the friendship that blossoms between these two younger women is one of the production's highlights.
Some of the comic business did seem a little contrived and performed on auto-pilot but in the key moments of revelation and despair this ensemble is faultless.
Three hours long and performed in Russian with surtitles this production asks a lot of its audience but I was seldom bored and if you’re prepared to invest your close attention you’ll be richly rewarded with a memorable theatrical experience.
As a woman living in the #metoo world I can tell you one thing for sure, it’s been tough. I mean it’s always been tough but the last few months have been particularly hard. Whilst the movement has brought a certain level of awareness regarding the problem of sexual harassment and sexual violence towards women, it also exposed women to constant triggers, as the conversation is happening in the media pretty much all the time.