I knew very little about Anton Chekhov’s play Uncle Vanya so I purchased a book with a collection of plays by the Russian author translated into English. Uncle Vanya, in this translation, was the unexpected antidote to months worth of sleepless nights. After reading ten pages of fifty-five I was drifting off from the exhaustion of dragging my reluctant eyes and brain through a swamp of alternating patronymic Russian names, ( confusing names reflecting on personal identity and family lineage), and very chunky, and, frankly, boring, paragraphs of vodka-infused Soviet sorrows on a farm estate that was, going down the pan and sold against the owner’s wishes.. Flicking forward I saw little except a sea of long drawn out speeches. I abandoned that as a theatrical path not worth the proverbial Russian boot leather it took to traverse. Surely this classic piece of Russian drama must have something better to offer than that. Surely.

Then I remembered half watching Andrew Scott’s, in my mind, histrionic, mannered, over-the-top theatrical ramblings on National Theatre at Home’s filmed production of Vanya where all the character’s names are Anglicised ( A sunglasses wearing Uncle Vanya becomes reduced to Ivan and a Maureen is alluded to). At the time of watching and not knowing a jot about the story I turned this version off after an hour of consistently losing the plot. Subsequently, I have given it a second chance which made slightly more sense. Marginally so. I didn’t fancy subscribing to an eternal endless looping damnation of Andrew Scott’s facial, vocal and body contortions in the sacred name of acting. Before you start writing in berating my woeful lack of taste and how wonderful he is, I do like him in Sherlock Holmes and Fleabag, less so in Present Laughter. So back to Uncle Vanya I trek.

What is a critic to do? It would be ill advised to go to a performance of Uncle Vanya at The Lace Market Theatre clutching a precautionary fluffy pillow ready to fall asleep before the first act curtain comes down. Fellow local reviewer Kev Castle and Cynthia Marsh, director/adaptor and translator of the play, come to the rescue with a Queen’s Medical Centre Hospital Radio interview in which Marsh explains, in quite some fascinating depth, that she had streamlined the play for this Lace Market Theatre adaptation. “Bozhe moi!” To listen to the full interview click this link.

In the radio interview, Cynthia Marsh explains that Uncle Vanya is set in the late 19th Century and is set in the provinces of Russia in the area that is presently between Russia and Ukraine, in the now disputed territories. The Serebryakovs are an educated family and they live on an estate which nowadays we we would call a farm. They struggle to run the farm and derive their income from farming and selling their produce. Another part of the family lives in St Petersburg. The St Petersburg branch of the family visit the farm on a summer visit and it raises all the tensions and the conflicts that sometimes happen in families when they get together in the baking hot summer. So that’s the context of the story. The broader context is that the man who comes from St Petersburg is Vanya’s brother-in-law the autocratic gout suffering insufferable Serebryakov. He had been married before and this time he has come with a striking new young wife called Elena. He brings that young wife with him and alas it’s she who finds herself at the centre of an entanglement of unwanted love affairs. She is really not interested in any of the would-be suitors and remains faithful to her husband, but at the same time, discovers she doesn’t like living in the country and prefers the other urban life of St Petersburg. These frustrations lead to some farcical events. Ivan Petrovich Voynitsky lives with his housekeeper Marina and his niece Sonya, who is a plain girl and quite the opposite to the beautiful well-dressed Elena. They don’t get on at first but gradually come together but that causes tensions with Doctor Astrov (Vanya’s friend) who has fallen in love with Elena and poor Sonya has always seen him as a potential partner. It’s a tangle of complex relationships played out not only with emotion and some anger but also with wonderful elements of farce. It’s that combination in Chekhov’s writing that entertains but also gives the audience something to laugh about but also to cry about and plenty of crisis drama. Then, in one of his most memorable final acts he conjures the bleakness and abandonment of life in a Russian wasteland.

The Lace Market cast are Danabha Johnson (Vanya), Jack Leo (Dr Astrov), Ali Lit (Sonya), David Phillips (Serebryakov), Charlotte Thomas (Elena), Sue Drew (Marya), Amanda Hodgson (Marina), James Whitby (Telegin), Lawrence Bembridge (Efim).

The first half introduces us to all of the characters and the script makes ample use of actors breaking the fourth wall to explain their actions, feelings and thoughts out loud and with some amusement to the audience. It is a good thing that this play isn’t a live audience drinking game with us simultaneously knocking back shots of vodka along with the characters as they get through an extraordinary amount of artisanal ‘bread wine’ over the two hours traffic on stage. One assumes that the family made their own vodka brew from fermented rye, wheat or buckwheat or a cheaper version from potatoes. The projected images of the Russian countryside and forests in all weathers on the back wall of the excellent set by Steve Musson with graphics and sound by Matt Allcock add considerably to the atmospheres of the Serebryakov household and garden circa 1896. Cynthia Marsh’s intelligent direction is faultless.

The acting is sound from all the cast with particularly strong performances from Danabha Johnson, Jack Leo, Ali Lit, David Phillips and Charlotte Thomas. In the first half all of these characters carry and convey a sense of isolated individualism about them as if they deliberately avoid getting too close to each other emotionally yet equally yearn for pleasant company amongst the family. Amanda Hodgson’s solidly portrayed Marina acts as a lynchpin offering support and liberal doses of cold tea and vodka. Hodgson also offers some unexpected support and stage experience to the re-arranging of the set and laying out of missing props during one of the second half scene changes tonight.

Johnson’s journey as Vanya is impressive as he begins as an amicable fellow who likes to doze after a fair few vodkas but gradually shows his inner feelings of resentment towards Aleksandr Serebryakov to the point of attempting to wound or kill him with his pistol. In the last scene where the families part Cynthia Marsh’s theatrical vision for the piece considers what life may be like for Russians in one hundred years time, a constant point of reference for the cast within the time frame they are living through. Also the hardships and political corruption Russians suffered at the time particularly in rural areas. Now we find Uncle Vanya entering the stage dressed in modern trousers and a light blue hoodie. One might question why. Marsh has chosen to use the modern day anti-corruption activist and political prisoner Alexei Anatolyevich Navalny who at one point was the chairman of Russia of The Future as a mirror connecting the hundred years. For further reference this is an excellent small display about Navalny on a board next to the bar in the clubroom at the theatre.

Additionally Chekhov gives his Dr Mikhail Lvovich Astrov an environmentally conscious voice supporting replanting forests while at the same time he is feeling worn out and emotionally numb to the world. Astrov is respected as a doctor but feels like his life is wasting away, much like many of the characters in this play. It is a nice surprise to see and hear a character like this in the play and Jack Leo brings out all these conflicting and ‘modern’ elements on stage. It seems that the more one looks beneath the surface of this classic Russian play and Cynthia Marsh’s expert translation the more there is to explore and learn. So, in conclusion, that which I mistakenly thought would be a tedious and boring piece of theatre turns out to have much that is relevant to our modern lives and our attempts to make sense of the world we live in. The final image in this play will give many in the audience much to discuss on the way home. Another super strong piece of theatre from The Lace Market Theatre.

Photos credit: Philip Hogarth.