Uncle Vanya

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Don't be miserable, you wonderful woman; be a mermaid. There's the ocean; throw yourself in. Fall in love with some poor mortal and drag him down with you. Astonish us!

On an isolated country estate, Sonia and her Uncle Vanya are committed to a life of ceaseless toil. But when the ageing invalid Serebriakov and his bewilderingly beautiful young wife take up residence, a yearning envelops the household and disturbs the accustomed tedium. Friend and confidant Astrov grows lovelorn, Sonia's heart breaks and even Vanya falls under the spell. And so they fight, bond, belittle, lament, make peace and contemplate the odd murder.

Featuring sex, comedy and unbearable sadness in nineteenth-century Russia, this version of Anton Chekhov's Uncle Vanya was written and directed by Terry Johnson and opened at Hampstead Theatre, London, in November 2018.

And having weathered the storm, what's left My feelings for you; a few droplets on a window pane, catching the sun, running down a way, drying to nothing.

Author Bio

Anton Chekhov (1860-1904), son of a former serf, graduated in medicine from Moscow University in 1884. He began to make his name first as a short-story writer, then in the theatre with the one-act comedies The Bear, The Proposal and The Wedding. His full-length plays are Platonov (written in 1878 but unpublished and unperformed in his lifetime), Ivanov (1887), The Wood Demon (1889), The Seagull (1896), Uncle Vanya (1899), Three Sisters (1901) and The Cherry Orchard (1904).

Terry Johnson is a playwright and director. His dozen major theatre awards include a Tony for Best Director La Cage Aux Folles, and Oliviers for Best Comedy for Hysteria and Cleo, Camping, Emmanuelle and Dick.