Why did turn-of-the-Twentieth century Russian playwright Anton Chekhov identify “Uncle Vanya” after his play’s most sad, most aimless, most pitiful and self-pitying character?
As Vanya, actor Hugh Bonneville (the patriarch in “Downton Abbey”) has the reply.
On this comparatively new translation by Irish playwright Conor McPherson now at Berkeley Repertory Theatre in a coproduction with Shakespeare Theatre Firm of Washington D.C., Bonneville is supported, in fact, by a terrific solid led by a terrific director: Shakespeare Theatre’s Simon Godwin.
McPherson’s easy translation, which largely retains the familiar-sounding textual content, solely very often seeming extra trendy, feels totally pure. Equally, the costumes by Susan Hilferty and Heather C. Freedman, interval with a contact of up to date model, are an ideal match.
Equally pure is Robert Brill’s scenic design: a shady backyard indicated by a rug and a few pillows for lounging about, the kitchen of the nation property and the drawing room. (Throughout one set change, ensemble member Kina Kantor so fantastically performs the cello onstage, you hardly discover the flurry of shifting furnishings.)
L-R, Tom Nelis and Kina Kantor are among the many solid of “Uncle Vanya” at Berkeley Repertory Theatre. (Courtesy Kevin Berne/Berkeley Rep by way of Bay Metropolis Information)
And lounge concerning the characters by some means handle to do on this fairly bodily energetic manufacturing, from cranky and unstable Vanya, who’s at first sleeping face down underneath the rug, to neighbor Astrov (John Benjamin Hickey), the physician who has misplaced his love for medication and now cares just for vodka, saving the environmentally threatened forest that surrounds this property and pining away for stunning, elusive home visitor Yelena.
Chekhov’s characters are well-known for at all times loving the flawed individual. In “Uncle Vanya,” each Vanya and Astrov pine for Yelena, the younger second spouse of the a lot older, pedantic professor (performed by Tom Nelis). “We are the most boring people on the estate,” remarks the indolent Yelena. As performed by Ito Aghayere, and dressed totally in white like a beacon, she is mysterious, quietly observant, the right receptacle for the stressed fantasies of the 2 males.
The overly lengthy go to of professor and spouse has utterly upended the graceful, if boring, day by day proceedings of the longtime residents of the property. Amongst different disruptions, it has dropped at a head the hopeless craving of unglamorous Sonya, the professor’s daughter (performed by Melanie Discipline with splendidly steely vigor) for Astrov.
Conor McPherson’s adaptation of “Uncle Vanya” onstage at Berkeley Repertory Theatre by means of March 23 options L-R, Ito Aghayere and Melanie Discipline. (Courtesy Kevin Berne/Berkeley Rep by way of Bay Metropolis Information)
And it has highlighted, for Sonya’s Uncle Vanya, the methods wherein he has subverted his personal future by toiling away as an unappreciated and unrewarded supervisor on this property which he actually doesn’t personal.
Even the peripheral characters who stay and work right here, all fantastically limned, are affected by the upheaval that the professor and Yelena have induced: the professor’s worshipful former mother-in-law (Sharon Lockwood), the struggling-to-be-noticed lodger, Waffles (Craig Wallace) and a servant (Nancy Robinette).
Chekhov often introduces his characters relatively awkwardly by means of informative autobiographical particulars they inform one another for our profit. Right here, and rather more satisfyingly, the little speeches are staged as monologues to the viewers. You nearly really feel such as you’re a part of this unhappy-in-their-own-way household.
This can be a “Vanya” for contemporary audiences that absolutely Chekhov would have cherished. It’s a superbly balanced mix of the environmental points that have been pricey to his coronary heart however not well-known to his audiences on the time, and the despair of going through a life not nicely spent. It provokes, relatively than tears or sentimentality, the form of viewers laughter that comes from a deep recognition of the everlasting comedy of the human situation.
As for Vanya, performed by Bonneville with such endearing, childlike humor, rage and self-loathing, it’s clear why he’s the play’s central determine. He’s the quintessential comical, embarrassing idiot—a common everyman (and girl) certainly, one which we will determine with all too nicely.
Shakespeare Theatre Firm and Berkeley Repertory Theatre’s co-production of “Uncle Vanya” continues by means of March 23 at Peet’s Theatre, 2025 Addison St., Berkeley. Tickets are $108 to $304 at berkeleyrep.org.
