ABOUT THE PLAY

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Ken Stott, Anna Friel, Samuel West and Laura Carmichael unite onstage in Anton Chekhov’s masterpiece, Uncle Vanya.  Adapted by Christopher Hampton, Uncle Vanya uniquely blends sparkling wit and earthy humour to brilliant comic effect.  Directed by Lindsay Posner with designs by Christopher Oram, this new production opens at the Vaudeville Theatre on 2 November 2012 with previews from 25 October. 

Vanya (Ken Stott), Yelena (Anna Friel), Astrov (Samuel West) and Sonya (Laura Carmichael) are all in love, with the past, with ideals and with each other. As their universe shifts around them they struggle to keep their emotions at bay in this exquisitely evoked comedy of the trials and tribulations of the human condition.

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CAST & CREATIVE

 

Doctor Astrov - Samuel West

Marina - June Watson

Vanya Voynitsky - Ken Stott

Yelena - Anna Friel

Serebryakov - Paul Freeman

Sonya - Laura Carmichael

Telyegin - Mark Hadfield

Madame Voynitsky - Anna Carteret

Yefim - David Bannerman

Labourer - Antony Gabriel

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Director - Lindsay Posner

Designer -  Christopher Oram

Lighting Designer - Paul Pyant

Music - Stephen Warbeck

Sound Designer - Gareth Owen

 

QUOTES & REVIEWS

 

‘star studded’ Libby Purves, The Times

‘Chekhov captured marvellously’ Charles Spencer, Daily Telegraph

‘deeply touching’ Charles Spencer, Daily Telegraph

‘Ken Stott’s splendid Vanya’ Paul Taylor, Independent

‘the excellent Samuel West’ Paul Taylor, Independent

‘limpid, faithful & sharp’ Michael Billington, The Guardian

‘superb, translation’ Michael Coveney, Whatsonstage.com

‘Heartbreaking’ Libby Purves, The Times

‘Silently funny’ Libby Purves, The Times

‘Fine performances’ Michael Billington, The Guardian

‘Aching poignancy’ The i

‘Genius’ Quentin Letts, Daily Mail

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While we all grudgingly accept that it’s never going to have the decency to keep a respectable distance forever, nobody ever wants to get into too close an acquaintance with misery. The pity is that, sooner or later, we all have to muck along with this wretched thing as best we can.

It is part of the deal of being alive, however, that we mustn’t let it show, at least not too much, or for too long. Death, disease and disappointment we all have to come to terms with, after all, and there is little to be gained by droning on about them. One man who never appeared to sign up to that view was Anton Chekhov. Pain is openly on parade in all of the Russian playwright’s works and never more so than in Uncle Vanya.

 

It says a lot for Christopher Oram’s skills as a designer and his empathy with the work that his big, heavy, dark and gloomy realisation of the house the protagonists inhabit made my heart sink. It seems to envelop the players and the punters in despair.

Good for Lindsay Posner, the director of this pitch-perfect production, for not choosing a big-star name to play the title role, but a proper, solid stage actor in Ken Stott. He specialises in lugubrious characters – most notably, Tony Hancock in BBC Four’s Hancock & Joan – and there’s a lot of that doomed comedian in his Vanya.

Vanya has the thankless task of running the estate of his brother-in-law, Serebryakov, an ageing, pompous professor who’s played with aplomb by Paul Freeman. He comes visiting with his glamorous second wife, Yelena (Anna Friel, deftly communicating claustrophobia and sexual frustration), and feelings of hatred and despair soon consume the house when the old boy thoughtlessly talks of disposing of his asset.

In the play’s dramatic high point, Vanya shoots Serebryakov and misses. Tragic but also funny, it is a scene that is as Hancockian as it is Chekhovian in Stott’s capable hands. He is a member of a fine ensemble: Samuel West seems to stink of alcohol, as the disillusioned local quack who has a soft spot for Yelena, and Anna Carteret gives a performance of quiet dignity as Vanya’s old mother.

The acting honours go, however, to Laura Carmichael (Downton Abbey’s Lady Edith) as Sonya, Vanya’s plain niece. One can almost hear the sound of tears in this wily young actress’s voice as she tries, against all odds, to keep herself and her family on the right side of madness.

If you are into depressing plays, this production is, paradoxically, an unalloyed joy.

Daily Telegraph

 

 

If you have a 'take it or leave it' attitude to Chekhov's plays you may want to reconsider because this version of 'Uncle Vanya' has some exceptionally fine performances to relish.

On a country estate somewhere in Russia, life is repetitive and boring. Nothing much happens. And, in fact, not a great deal happens during the course of the play either. So much so that when Tolstoy first saw it, he famously said "Where's the drama?". But there's actually quite a lot, even if nothing changes as a result of it.

Vanya manages the estate on behalf of Serebryakov, a professor who previously lived in the city but has been recently residing at the estate along with his younger second wife, Yelena. The usual household rhythms have been disturbed, and Vanya has fallen in love with Yelena. But he has a competitor in this regard in the form of Astrov who is a local doctor and regular visitor at the estate. Astrov is obsessed with the deforestation of the surrounding countryside and the associated disappearance of the fauna. To complicate matters, Vanya's niece, Sonya, is in love with the Doctor and Serebryakov has plans to sell the estate which, when they are revealed, throw the household into confusion, and the simmering frustration which has been gnawing away inside Vanya, quite literally explodes.

Between acts, there are some fairly lengthy scene changes. These are quite intrusive, and I could not help wondering whether they were worth the effort. A minor irritation, possibly, because there are advantages to having some short breaks during quite an intense play. Otherwise, Christopher Oram's design is rather striking as it looks like a forest or two of wood has been used to create it - something Doctor Astrov would no do doubt complain fiercely about. And, actually, that may be exactly the point.

That aside, the performances on display here are quite exceptional and work wonderfully together. Ken Stott is superb as Uncle Vanya. At the beginning of the play when he wakes from his nap and starts ranting about the professor's writing one instantly recognises a man who is close to breaking point. Mr Stott's Vanya is literally seething with resentment and anger which has obviously been building up for years. However, Mr Stott also shows us the comic side of this character too. So, when the professor announces his plans for the estate and Vanya loses the last vestiges of control, we hardly know whether to weep or fall about in the aisles. Paul Freeman is also in excellent form as Serebryakov, producing an agitated but humorous rant about his age which almost rivals Vanya's about him. There is terrific support from Samuel West as Doctor Astrov, obsessed by deforestation; Anna Friel as the beautiful Yelena who is bored to death by rural living and disgusted by her admirers. And June Watson is perfectly cast as nanny Marina. She looks like one those Russian dolls with layers of skirts too numerous to count, and broods over the samovar as if it is some kind of nuclear installation. But Ms Watson has a wonderfully warm, comforting voice that one suspects could calm hostile armies in seconds, and she deals with the professor like a naughty schoolboy, and he instantly succumbs.

Lindsay Posner's production may be a solidly traditional rendition of 'Uncle Vanya', but what makes it totally enthralling is the sheer quality of the acting on display. Fine stuff.

London Theatre Review