Sonia steals the show and Chekhov's Vanya
UNCLE VANYA
Bridewell Theatre
ANTON Chekhov, the voice of 19th-century morality, had not yet matured as a writer when he wrote Uncle Vanya.
But the play was well received by critics and was performed 323 times in Moscow between 1899 and 1935.
Chekhov masterfully combines tragedy with comedy, often blurring the lines in between. The tragedy in this play is of the metaphysical kind – lost youth, squandered opportunities and disappointment.
Uncle Vanya has been working on his dead sister’s estate and sending money to her husband, the Professor, without a thought for himself. His life is shattered with the realisation that the professor does not care about him or Uncle Vanya’s home where he and his niece Sonia live.
Uncle Vanya’s infatuation with the professor’s young and beautiful wife is based on the concept that her youth and beauty will be able to bring back all that he has lost, alas he has no regard for how she really feels and she spurns him.
The title of the play suggests that the work is actually about Sonia, Vanya’s niece. She provides a solution to Vanya’s problems and her own – she believes that real happiness comes after life on earth.
A doubtful consolation, but one that seems to work for her. Sonia is by far the best thing in this play, and one that Chekhov seems to like the most: she is in touch with the earth that feeds them and with her soul.
Until Oct 8
020 7226 3633 Click here to book tickets
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