Reviews
UNCLE VANYA Court House Theatre/Shaw Festival
By
May 18, 2016, 13:21

Shaw Festival
Through September 11
UNCLE VANYA Court House Theatre/Shaw Festival

By Augustine Warner

A major contribution to the theater scene involves producing what are considered classic plays, like the Shaw Festival producing Anton Chekhov’s “Uncle Vanya.”
For many, the mention of Chekhov brings an immediate request for a drink or the desire to stay in and watch summer TV reruns.
That’s not true here, partially because director Jackie Maxwell is using a new script based on Margarita Shalina’s translation and Annie Baker’s adaptation.
That means it’s very colloquial and has some of the humor Chekhov had claimed was inside the play and isn’t written in a stiff English so common in aging translations.
It also helps that Maxwell has a really strong cast, especially Neil Barclay’s Vanya and David Schurmann’s Serebryakov.
Barclay’s body language and handling of the role really helps, in this look at a Southern Russia family whose wealth isn’t as society is changing in these early years of the 20th Century.
This is only a few decades after the Czar freed the serfs on Russia’s estates and changed everything, although it wasn’t enough as Alexander II’s reform efforts died with him when he was murdered by a terror group in 1881.
He was succeeded by two Czars who use the knout instead of the carrot to rule.
The second, Nicholas II, lost all in 1917, not that many years past the time of “Uncle Vanya.”
Vanya has been running the estate but there isn’t much income and much of that has been going to Serebryakov in his post as a college professor living well and writing academic gibberish.
When he returns to the estate, perhaps forever, Vanya spends all of his time with him and ignores management of the property and things start falling apart.
Sonya (Marla McLean) is Vanya’s niece and Serebrykov’s daughter from his first marriage, whose mother died and, was replaced by the much younger Yelena (Moya O’Connell).
The wild card in this crowd of family members and servants is the local doctor, Astrov (Patrick McManus), who hangs out at the home when out in the field and Sonya who lusts after him, at least as much as a person of her birth was allowed to.
Astrov is a drunk who can’t see what’s going on around him, specifically Sonya.
The Court House isn’t the largest space around, so Sue LePage has to work within fairly narrow limits and does her usual wonderful job of creating something within those limits.
Both at Shaw and at Stratford, the companies are so deep in talent that even the spear carriers are strong, not just someone brought in to fill a space on stage, here performers like Donna Belleville (Maria Vasilyevna), Sharry Flett (Marina) and Kate Besworth (Petrushka).
This is also the show which shares most of the cast with “Our Town” in the repertory tradition.
Maxwell is the outgoing artistic director, so she gets first crack at performers.
It’s the fine job she does with those performers that shows how good she is as a director, making the show work and work quickly as the set changes are swift and the lights come back up as old Russia continues to fade.
If you don’t find it interesting to watch a society which is falling apart in societal change, forget this one.
If you are looking for light shows, this really isn’t.
If you want to understand a little about Chekhov, about Imperial Russia and why this play is in the Canon, this production is worth seeing.
That’s especially true in the Court House, with the events unfolding on stage almost in a theatrical pit as the audience watches.
“Uncle Vanya” is what theater is about.


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