Uncle Vanya - Full Play

17.07.2023

Uncle Vanya is a play by the Russian playwright Anton Chekhov. It was first published in 1898, and first produced in 1899 by the Moscow Art Theatre, directed by Konstantin Stanislavski.

The play portrays the visit of an elderly professor and his glamorous, much younger second wife, Yelena, to the rural estate that supports their urban lifestyle. Two friends, Vanya, the brother of the professor's late first wife, who has long managed the estate, and Astrov, the local doctor both fall under Yelena's spell while bemoaning the ennui of their provincial existence. 

Sonya, the professor's daughter by his first wife, who has worked with Vanya to keep the estate going, suffers from her unrequited feelings for Astrov. Matters are brought to a crisis when the professor announces his intention to sell the estate, Vanya and Sonya's home, with a view to investing the proceeds to achieve a higher income for himself and his wife.

Background:

Uncle Vanya is unique among Chekhov's major plays because it is essentially an extensive reworking of The Wood Demon, a play he published a decade earlier

By elucidating the specific changes Chekhov made during the revision process these include reducing the cast from almost two dozen down to nine, changing the climactic suicide of The Wood Demon into the famous failed homicide of Uncle Vanya, and altering the original happy ending into an ambiguous, less final resolution critics such as Donald Rayfield, Richard Gilman, and Eric Bentley have sought to chart the development of Chekhov's dramaturgical method through the 1890s.

Rayfield cites recent scholarship suggesting Chekhov revised The Wood Demon during his trip to the island of Sakhalin, a prison colony in Eastern Russia, in 1891.

Characters:

Aleksandr Vladimirovich Serebryakov: A retired university professor, who has lived for years in the city on the earnings of his late first wife's rural estate, managed for him by Vanya and Sonya.

Helena Andreyevna Serebryakova (Yelena): Serebryakov's young and beautiful second wife. She is 27 years old.

Sofia Alexandrovna Serebryakova (Sonya): Serebryakov's daughter from his first marriage. She is of marriageable age but is considered plain.

Maria Vasilyevna Voynitskaya: the widow of a privy councilor and mother of Vanya (and of Vanya's late sister, Serebryakov's first wife).

Ivan Petrovich Voynitsky ("Uncle Vanya"): Maria's son and Sonya's uncle, the title character of the play. He is 47 years old.

Mikhail Lvovich Astrov: A middle-aged country doctor. His preoccupation with the destruction of forests is one of the earlier discussions of ecological problems in world literature.

Ilya Ilych Telegin; nicknamed "Waffles" for his pockmarked skin): an impoverished landowner, who now lives on the estate as a dependent of the family.

Marina Timofeevna: An old nurse.

A Workman

Summary:

Uncle Vanya is a tragic play examining the hopelessness of country life in Russia during the late 19th century. Vanya struggled all his life in the name of his brother-in-law while taking care of his estate and child, Sonya. In this life, at least, there are no rewards.

The Play As A Complete Film Version:

2020, UK

Directors: Ross MacGibbonIan Rickson

Writers: Anton Chekhov, Conor McPherson

Stars: Roger AllamRichard ArmitageAnna Calder-Marshall

The Second Film:

1991 television production of David Mamet's translation of Chekhov's classic, with David Warner, Ian Holm, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Ian Bannen, Rebecca Pidgeon, Rachel Kempson, Sandra Voe, et al. (impaired by occasional videotape "rolling"}