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Regional Reviews: Washington, D.C. Uncle Vanya
This production, which originated at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, follows the playwright's opinion that "on the stage everything should be as complex and as simple as in life." Contemporary Irish playwright Conor McPherson has adapted the play in a way that allows its realistic and poetic components to coexist side by side. The broad Harman Hall stage allows space for audience seats on both sides, with Robert Brill's setting in the middle; interestingly, the Act 1 scenic design is non-literal (does the first act take place indoors or outside?), but the set becomes increasingly realistic as the four-act play progresses. Cast members appear onstage, out of character, before the action begins, and costume designers Susan Hilferty and Heather C. Freedman mingle the time of the play, 1900, with the current day by integrating elements of both eras. Vanya (Hugh Bonneville) is chronically disheveled in appearance, a man who worries that he has wasted his life taking care of other people. He shares his family's rural home with his niece Sonya (Melanie Field), his mother (Sharon Lockwood), a now-elderly nursemaid (Nancy Robinette), and a former neighbor who has lost his property (Craig Wallace). Then, Sonya's father (Tom Nelis), a fatuous professor, arrives with his second wife, glamorous Yelena (Ito Aghayere), and everything turns upside down. Rather than a plot, the drama focuses on individual moments of connection and distance among the characters. Both Vanya and his friend Dr. Astrov (John Benjamin Hickey) are bewitched by Yelena, while Sonya–who has long loved Astrov–knows he will never reciprocate, or even become aware of, her feelings. As this is Chekhov, even the minor characters have their personal dramas: the former neighbor recounts his sad past with pride, and Astrov is preoccupied with observing changes in the local ecology over time. The cast is stellar. Bonneville embodies how Vanya can be endearing and insufferable at once; Nelis presents a man who, over the years, has come to believe the myths he tells about himself; Hickey is resolute and impassioned; and Aghayere shows how Yelena is getting tired of men caring about her beauty more than her character. Uncle Vanya runs through April 20, 2025, at Shakespeare Theatre Company, Harman Hall, 610 F St. NW, Washington DC. For tickets and information, please call 202-547-1122 or 877-487-8849 or visit www.shakespearetheatre.org. By Anton Chekhov, adapted by Conor McPherson Cast: |
