Just when you thought you couldn’t get any closer to Uncle Vanya—after Richard Nelson’s streamlined, whisper-level Hunter College production and Soho Rep’s Sam Gold–directed, Annie Baker–scripted version with 70 or so audience members on floor cushions—along comes another (already sold-out) Vanya that reaches a startling new level of intimacy: 40 theatergoers per night in a private Flatiron loft.
You might be just an arm’s length away from any or all of the action: When bored-bored-bored Vanya (Tony-winning director David Cromer, in a rare acting appearance) slumps in a chair like a sullen schoolboy; when the pompous Professor Serebryakov (two-time Tony winner Bill Irwin, relishing the role of fussbudget) gripes about his rheumatism; when his much younger and very stylish wife, Yelena (Julia Chan), swans in, wearing a billowy Barbie-pink sundress or an Issey Miyake–style tunic-trouser set; when Astrov (Will Brill), doctor by day, conservationist by night, gives one of his impassioned environmental speeches (“The forests are disappearing one by one, the rivers are polluted, wildlife is becoming extinct, the climate is changing for the worse, every day the planet gets poorer and uglier”); when the professor’s daughter, Vanya’s hardworking niece, Sonya (Marin Ireland, never better), stares dreamily at Astrov; when he declares his infatuation with Yelena; when Vanya repeatedly proclaims his love for Yelena. “What is it about you men?” Yelena asks Vanya in frustration. “You can’t leave a woman alone until she belongs to you!”
Has an Astrov ever been so captivating? In the hands of Brill—recently seen in A Case for the Existence of God, directed by Cromer—Astrov’s climate-change rants have never sounded more immediate: “We were born with the ability to reason and the power to create and be fruitful, but until now all we’ve done is destroy whatever we see.” He could get every one of us to walk out and plant a tree with him. And there’s actually palpable chemistry between Astrov and Sonya: Director Jack Serio (This Beautiful Future) stages the pivotal I-don’t-love-anybody scene by candlelight, with the two actors huddled atop a kitchen island. It’s gorgeous, almost like something out of a romantic comedy. For an ever-so-brief moment, they’re close enough to kiss. And we want them to kiss. He and Sonya should be together; we can see it—why can’t he see it? Yes, Yelena is beautiful, but when she’s in his arms, it simply looks wrong. He should be with Sonya, plain and simple.
Paul Schmidt’s translation may be more than 25 years old, but it sounds fresh as ever. Just listen to Vanya’s unvarnished description of his crusty brother-in-law: “A retired professor, a has-been, a moldy mackerel with a college degree.” Or his griping about his “dear old maman”: “She’s still babbling on about equal rights for women; she has one foot in the grave and the other on a stack of feminist pamphlets…” (Walt Spangler’s set might look like an average living space, but the details are stunning. Among the books on maman’s reading table: The Feminist Papers; Women, Church and State; and The Women’s Liberation Movement in Russia: Feminism, Nihilism, and Bolshevism 1860–1930.) Or Astrov’s drunken philosophizing: “A woman becomes a man’s friend in three steps: first acquaintance, then lover, then friend.” Not a sentiment you’d stitch on a pillow, but a line that you’ll remember.
And then there’s Sonya’s speech to Vanya at the end, as the two desperately unhappy characters get back to the business of running a farm. “You and I, Uncle Vanya, we have to go on living,” she urges. When they’re dead, “we’ll see a brand-new life, all shining and beautiful.” Of course, it’s heartbreaking—the idea that death is something they’re looking forward to. But there’s a flicker of hope—or perhaps courage—in Ireland’s voice that infuses this monologue with more than just resignation. Life goes on…emphasis on life.
Uncle Vanya opened July 6, 2023, and runs through July 16. Wait-list and lottery tickets and information: vanyanyc.com
