Many versions of Anton Chekhov’s 1897 play have been staged as written and in adaptations. Two of my more recent takes were Christopher Durang’s hilarious Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike and a witty off-Broadway gem Life Sucks. Heidi Schreck (What the Constitution Means To Me) has provide this new version of Uncle Vanya. This one is a hard pass.
All of the angst is present. A few baubles for your pleasure. “Why does the sound of my voice sound so unpleasant to you?” Uncle Vanya is “so mad at myself for pissing away all that time in my life”. He comments that it’s “nice weather for hanging yourself”. One more you ask? “Why do we get drunk?” The answer is “so I can pretend to be alive”.
In the right production these amusing asides could entertain. Lila Neugebauer is a theater director I have greatly admired for The Wolves, Appropriate, The Antipodes and Miles for Mary to name a few. The misfire here, therefore, is fairly shocking. I do not believe I am alone in that opinion as the number of intermission walkouts were noticeable.
The cast is marooned on distant locations across a vast stage at Lincoln Center’s Vivian Beaumont Theater. The pace of the direction is very, very slow as if the previous line had to traverse the void and be heard by another character. I presume the tempo is supposed to amp up the droll angsty humor but everything just came across flat and, frankly, quite boring.
Two actors manage to shine. Alison Pill is always a treat to watch and her unrequited love for Astrov (William Jackson Harper) is painfully real. Their scene together is the high point of the play by far. Interactions between everyone else seem less interesting. While believability might not be a goal, there needs to be some emotional connection to the plot machinations transpiring.
Steve Carell is making his Broadway debut as Uncle Vanya. The part promises a good fit but the gloom and doom guy does not have enough dimensions here for us to care or even laugh in recognition. At the end of the play he notes “my suffering is at an end finally”. We feel it too, unfortunately.
Uncle Vanya is playing at the Vivian Beaumont Theater through June 16, 2024.