North Side

Polly Simons

November 24, 2010

 

Chekhov with a sense of humour? I wouldn’t have believed it either if I hadn’t seen Richard Roxburgh, Cate Blanchett and co unleashing their inner comics in “Uncle Vanya”.
Theatre buffs will know there was once a notorious dispute between Chekhov and Russian director Stanislavsky over whether plays were tragedy or comedy and of course the answer is both.
But I didn’t expect to laugh so often or so hard at Vanya. The play is a treat to begin with: Blanchett, Roxburgh, Hugo Weaving and John Bell, with Jackie Weaver, Sandy Gore and Andrew Tighe in star-studded bit parts. It’s no wonder the season is almost sold out.
“I think I could write a whole thesis on life and how it should be lived,” says Prof Serebryakov (Bell) who with wife Yelena (Blanchett), has come to the estate of Vanya (Roxburgh) and his niece Sonya (Hayley McElhinney). Their visit, along with those of Astrov (Weaving) creates turmoil for Vanya, who has wasted his life trying to coax profit from the land.
The script is adapted by Andrew Upton, and Hungarian director Tamas Ascher insisted every line be as simple and straightforward as possible, allowing the actors to engage without hiding behind florid language. Roxburgh is completely credible as Vanya, a crumpled man falling apart at the seams, Bell is perfectly cantankerous as Serebryakov and Blanchett as the platinum-curled Yelena is quite the exotic outsider. Weaving is, as always, extraordinary. Theatre lovers won’t need to be told, but “Uncle Vanya” is a privilege to watch