Uncle Vanya at the Quarry Theatre

ADAPTED by Samuel Adamson and directed by Mark Rosenblatt, the WYP’s Vanya seeks to illustrate the timelessness of Chekov’s central concerns. Charting the arrival/departure of Professor Serebryakov (John Bett) and his new young bride, Yelena (Georgina Rylance), the play focuses on the effect their presence has on the residence of a struggling estate. Spreading idleness to all they interact with, the couple have a particularly negative impact on the disillusioned Vanya (David Ganly).

Jealous of of his brother-in-law’s apparent success; resenting how much Serebryakov takes and how little he gives back and desperately in love with Yelena (Georgina Rylance), Vanya wallows in self-pity. His niece, Sonya (Dorothea Myer-Bennett) is hopelessly in love with the local doctor, Mikhail Astrov (Ryan Kiggell), who is blind to her feelings and infatuated with Yelena.

Designer Dick Bird’s clever woodland set is made of recycled objects to reflect Astrov’s environmental concerns and has a mystical, fairytale feel. The stage floor is earthy; littered with garden chairs, tables and umbrellas and a swing hangs stage front, complemented by rain sounds. When the action moves inside the large family home, lights darken as window frames and candelabra descend on wires; a piano and table are brought on later.

Heavy on dialogue, Uncle Vanya marks Chekov’s experimentation with melodrama as a genre, challenging traditional structures with a hanging ending, leaving much unresolved and characters perpetually merely continuing to exist. For this reason, nothing much happens; the play’s climax is more of an anti-climax as Vanya kicks off after Serebryakov threatens to sell the farm that he’s worked to build for 25 years, only to simmer down and the play end almost as it begun.

Although many concerns remain relevant today and its characters’ experiences are universally shared (unrequited love, disappointment, the desire to achieve something in a lifetime...), Chekov’s characters are unsympathetic, incessantly moaning but in possession of a “mere” 90 acre estate. Vanya’s many monologues are dry and bitter; family interactions are dysfunctional and akin to a high brow EastEnders. Their message seems to be there’s virtue in purely managing to exist, even if unhappy. The professor’s parting words, “You have to do what needs to be done” are silently followed by “and no more”, a rather depressing, hollow ending.

Aside from odd accents, the cast can’t be faulted; amidst doom and gloom they create light relief during drunken midnight meetings. Chekov’s Vanya perhaps best suits teenage sensibilities and whiny fatalists.

Uncle Vanya, at West Yorkshire Playhouse until March 21, wyp.org.uk/what’s-on/2015/uncle-vanya/.

By Leo Owen