Uncle Vanya

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Rachel Botchan and Chris Mixon in a scene from the Pearl Theatre Company’s revival of Uncle Vanya

(Photo credit: Al Foote III)

Anton Chekhov’s nineteenth century Uncle Vanya is an extremely difficult play to put over for American audiences. First of all, Chekhov considered his plays comedies, tragicomedies in modern parlance, though there aren’t a great many laugh lines. (What else do you call a man shooting his perceived mortal enemy and missing not once but twice?) Played too heavily, it tips towards tragedy or melodrama.

It is also about people who complain they have no money but all seem to have incomes that take care of their needs. And they all protest that they want change but do not raise a finger to make it happen.

Chekhov’s plays, like Moliere and Shakespeare’s, not only hold the mirror up to nature, they also allow us to observe misguided people to whom we can feel superior. We wouldn’t make these same mistakes, would we? We are more intelligent than these people as we watch them claim to want one thing and do the other. It is part of the comedy that we can see the missteps coming even if our heroes and heroines can’t stop themselves from making poor choices.

The Pearl Theatre Company’s new artistic director Hal Brooks has chosen Uncle Vanya for the opening production of its 31^st season. He gets a good many things right and a few of them wrong, or at least as miscalculations. His production has a light touch making clear that this is a comedy and that we can laugh at these misguided souls with their messy lives. The play has a modern sensibility due to both the 1999 translation by Paul Schmidt and its emphasis on ecology, making Chekhov appear extremely prescient in his thinking back in 1897. The scenic design by Jason Simms allows for swift segues from one scene to another in this four-act play structure, with no time lost between scenes.

 

Chris Mixon, Brad Heberlee and Bradford Cover in a scene from the Pearl Theatre Company’s Uncle Vanya (Photo credit: Al Foote III)

All of Chekhov’s plays are about arrivals and departures and Uncle Vanya is no exception. Professor emeritus Alexander Serebriakov and his beautiful and young second wife Yelena have retired to the rural estate that his daughter Sonya has inherited from her late mother. She and her Uncle Vanya, the professor’s former brother-in-law, devote their time to managing the estate and sending the proceeds to maintain the professor and his wife. Sonya’s grandmother (the professor’s former mother-in-law) who lives with them worships the professor and for her, he can do no wrong. With the arrival of the Serebriakovs their quiet, well-ordered life is thrown into a tumult.

The professor, still working at his books and his writing, proves to be demanding and ill, his gout always bothering him, and his calls for meals at two a.m. are causing trouble with the servants. Sonya has long been in love with local visiting Doctor Astrov (an advocate for protecting forests and the land) but he and Vanya have fallen head over heels in love with the alluring, languid Yelena, neither of whom is getting any work done following her around. And Yelena, who seems to be in a trance, wanders around moaning about how bored she is in the country. With the new regimen of late nights and indolent days, all the characters are confronted with the possibility that life may be passing them by. As the summer heat rises, the atmosphere is ripe for an explosion which is destined to be fulfilled when the professor comes up with an (outrageous) plan which he thinks will suit everyone.

As Doctor Astrov, Bradford Cover gives such an expansive and commanding performance, that the production becomes about him, which partly solves the problem of how to regard Vanya. He brings a vitality and robustness to both the play and the role which make them both extremely alive whenever he is on stage. Chris Mixon’s Vanya, on the other hand, makes clear his self-sacrificing nature, but his character’s self-dramatizing pose and lack of self-knowledge (“I could have been another Schopenhauer, another Dostoyevsky!”) do not come off as the clown the author clearly sees in him. Dominic Cuskern’s Professor Alexander is decidedly fussy and pedantic, but he never makes him the monstrous egotist that the others perceive.

 

Rachel Botchan and Brad Heberlee in a scene from The Pearl Theatre Company’s Uncle Vanya

(Photo credit: Al Foote III)

From the reaction of the men, Yelena ought to be beautiful, mysterious, aloof, distant. Rachel Botchan who is attractive enough to play the role never suggests any untapped hidden reserves. She is more like a suburban matron going through a rough patch than a femme fatale unaware of her powers over men or unwilling to act on her desires, take your pick. Michelle Beck, looking too pretty to be the plain Sonya, has not found the role yet. She is too cheerful and vital to be credible as the lovelorn and down-trodden daughter who is taken for granted by her absent father who ignores her even during his visit. Robin Leslie Brown is fine as the nurse Marina who seems to keep the house going, but she never seems tired enough from all her labors. As Vanya’s mother and the professor’s former mother-in-law, Carol Schultz’s Maman is decidedly eccentric without making the role her own.

Aside from his light touch which keeps the play from seeming gloomy, Brooks has an uneasy hold on the play’s rhythms which seem erratic – we are never sure what kind of play we are watching. Schmidt’s translation goes a long way to blowing off the cobwebs on Chekhov’s 19^th century Tsarist Russia but his occasional use of a contemporary word like “freak” draws attention to itself. While Simms’ unit set suggests a summer retreat with its green walls covered with vegetation, he makes little distinction between indoors and outdoors and the claustrophobia which the characters are feeling is never real to the audience. So too the continual rain in Act Two which is driving all of the characters mad is not much in evidence in M. Florian Staab’s sound design. Barbara A. Bell’s costumes are attractive but she seems to forget that the elusive, vain and desirable Yelena would most likely be dressed in the height of fashion, making her irresistible to the men around her.

The Pearl Theatre Company’s revival of Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya is both accessible and airy in tone, making it an entertaining theatrical experience. Its modern sensibility causes this 19^th century play to seem relevant to this generation again pondering questions of the environment. However, as several of the performances do not fulfill the characters as described, this is not in any way a definitive production. Some of the directorial choices are excellent, others are problematic. This Uncle Vanya, however, might be a good starting place for those who have avoided Chekhov or who have not experienced him in the past. It ought to make for good after-theater conversation.

 

Uncle Vanya (through October 12, 2014)

The Pearl Theatre, 555 West 42^nd Street, in Manhattan

For tickets, call 212-563-9261 or visit http://www.pearltheatre.org

Running time: two hours and 25 minutes including one intermission