Uncle Vanya @ Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond, London
Trevor Nunn’s wonderfully humane version of Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya, in which all the characters count and are treated kindly; we could see their thought processes. There is even a Gogol joke moment — ‘Government Inspector?!!!’ James Lance was a tenderly romantic and distracted Uncle Vanya, failing to work or find his purpose on a country estate alongside Sonya (Madeleine Gray), his mother Maria (Susan Tracy), an aging servant Marina (Juliet Garricks) and his friends. Their lives are enlivened by visits from the local doctor Astrov (Andrew Richardson), who as an early climate change warrior wants to plant trees and ‘green’ the landscape again, even rewilding.
Everything has been turned upside down when Vanya’s brother-in-law, Professor Serebryakov (William Chubb) and his intelligent, beautiful but very bored wife, Elena (Lily Sacofsky) unsuitably rock up to stay in the country on the cheap. Elena’s boredom infects everyone else and her beauty is so mesmerising in this dull backwater that everyone just wants to fall at her feet and follow her around — particularly Vanya, and the doctor. Soon Vanya is unsuitably professing love for Elena and picking her flowers, whilst (after a time of hostility) Sonya is able to be friends with her step-mother, and share her secret love for the doctor with her. Which allows Elena to reflect on her own feelings and if she wants to act on them.
The dramatic moment when Vanya changes character and decides to murder his brother-in-law after his announcement that he’s going to sell the estate (their home) to save money and move to Petersburg was powerfully rendered. Elena intervenes to protect her husband from the pistol brandishing enraged Vanya. Vanya’s fury to despair was moving as he realised that he and Sonya had sacrificed for little return or respect, and had wasted their lives on a ‘genius’ who wasn’t worth it. The Professor was frequently a doddery old man getting the household revolving around his whims, needing Marina to pull him up from his enveloping chair — and Elena to save him from his brother-in-law.
This production allowed space for all the characters, Elena was allowed intelligence and thoughts as she abandoned self-control and allowed herself to love the doctor (for a time). Sonya’s heart-rending, hopeful speech at the end had really pathos (and real tears) as she pleaded faith in heaven that their lives and work for her father had not been in vain — that they would have eternal hope and rest in the end, that they are loved and not forgotten. Although it’s incredibly sad, it’s also hopeful.
Andrew Richardson’s Astrov had real energy, fuelled by drink, as he took to wine, women, dance and song, amongst the passion for trees, and pity as he begged Elena to stay with him at the end. I liked that Marina had a voice, and also comforted Sonya in her despair of not being loved by the doctor, as well as being oppressed by demands for tea by the Professor at odd hours of the night. Sonya had wonderful youthful energy and speechy thoughts, not yet bowed down by life — although shamefully neglected by her father. Grief and loss wove in as Vanya and others reminisced about his long-dead sister. Telegin’s (David Ahmad) frankly rambling and often irrelevant stories about his wife, his marriage and his life assumed an affectionate aside. We felt compassion for him in his sadness.
Most of all the samovar was the star, taking centre stage — whether hot or cold!
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