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Uncle Vanya
Scenes From Country Life In Four Acts
By Anton Chekhov
Translated by Paul Schmidt
Directed by Charles Newell
Produced by Court Theatre & Museum of Contemporary Art
At 220 E. Chicago Ave
Chicago, IL
Call 773-753-4472, tickets $36 - $54
Wednesdays & Thursdays at 7:30 pm
Fridays at 8 pm
Saturdays at 3 & 8 pm
Sundays at 2:30 & 7:30 pm
Running time is 2 hours with intermission
Through February 11, 2007
Stunning, unconventional Uncle Vanya gives life to Chekhov’s classic
Court Theatre’s Charles Newell’s bold mounting of Anton Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya ( in a spicy translation by Paul Schmidt) at the wide stage in the Museum of Contemporary Art breathes new life into this static 1899 comedy/drama. The lesson here for fledgling directors to note—get your actors on a large, multilevel wooden and steel set featuring three platforms with four long staircases. Have them move swiftly from entrance to exits with manic energy while busily delivering the passionate and intense Chekhov dialogue filled with comic brilliance and quiet desperation spending enough energy to hook the audience.
Leigh Breslau, an architect from the firm of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP, has designed the impressive structure that allows the players to react like mice in a maze. This exuberant production exudes the ridiculously moments from the Serebriakov family’s farce of upper class Russian gentry. We meet Uncle Vanya (Kevin Gudahl at his comic best) as he laments his lost 25 years running the family’s estate while Serebiakov (James Harmes) spends his time writing about art. Sonya (the feisty Elizabeth Ledo) helps Vanya attended to the estate. Yelana (The vivacious Chaon Cross) and Sonya both secretly love Asrtrov (Timothy Edward Kane), the neighboring doctor and environmentalist. Marina (Penny Slusher) the family nurse, Telegin (Matthew Krause) and the hired man (Dave Belden) with Mrs. Voinitsky, mother (Peggy Roeder) round out the cast. You’d be hard pressed to find a finer troupe than this cast.
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Chekhov’s masterwork contains a blend of farce and desperation to reveal hopeless infatuations and old family grudges laced with ironic humor. Wasted lives and painful regrets are stated as the play suggests a tired society on the brink of destruction. Newell’s revisionist production pours out Chekhov’s humor especially from Timothy Edward Kane and Kevin Gudhal—two of the finest Chicago actors working today. The swift pacing and movement together with terrific performances made the two hours fly by in an engagingly lively show. Who said Chekhov has to be boring? Not in this imaginative production.
Highly Recommended
Tom Williams
Tom99@chicagocritic.com for comments
Talk Theatre in Chicago podcast
Date Reviewed: January 21, 2007
Jeff Recommended
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