Uncle Vanya, theatre review: Thrilling update to a classic

Robert Icke’s interpretation of this Chekhov classic is slowly beguiling — and in its later stages becomes magical, says Henry Hitchings
Richly detailed: Paul Rhys and Jessica Brown Findlay
Manuel Harlan
Henry Hitchings15 February 2016

Robert Icke’s interpretation of Chekhov’s classic portrait of frustration and despair is slowly beguiling — and in its later stages becomes magical. Its location, never specified, certainly isn’t 19th-century Russia, and the names have been anglicised — Uncle Vanya is now Uncle Johnny. But while uprooting the characters from their original setting may make the reasons for their crushing boredom less easy to grasp, the play’s emotional density is intact.

These are people haunted by dreams even as they’re crumpled by failure, and there are richly detailed performances throughout. Paul Rhys brings a brilliantly awkward intensity to Johnny the estate manager, and Jessica Brown Findlay captures the fragile hopefulness of his niece Sonya. Hilton McRae conveys the dry self-regard of their absentee landlord, and there’s a thrilling tension between his young wife Elena — an eloquent study by Vanessa Kirby of glamour pickled in ennui — and the local doctor (a broodingly charismatic Tobias Menzies).

At nearly three and a half hours, with three intervals, this is a deliberately unhurried production. The mood is defined by Hildegard Bechtler’s rotating set, which looks like a giant four-poster bed — apt for a drama full of languid longing and cyclical unhappiness, though it creates some tricky sight lines. Icke’s updating of the text contains a single jarring line about sharia law, but is keenly attuned to Chekhov’s vision, savouring both its melancholy and its dark comedy.

Until March 26, Almeida Theatre (020 7359 4404, almeida.co.uk)

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