For some, Christmas is an enjoyable holiday full of wonder and surprise. Others are forced to confront relatives they try to avoid throughout the rest of the year, and need something a little less festive to help them handle the sickly sweetness of the festive season. With just two shows left in their run, Uncle Vanya may be just that.
Turned from Anton Chekhov’s gruelling play into an impressive hour-or-so show, Theatrical Niche’s Uncle Vanya tells an all too familiar family story.
This version is set in an almost parallel version of our time and sees Ivan (Matthew Houlihan) and his niece Sonia (Foxey Hardman) looking after her father (Jeremy Drakes) and his gorgeous young wife, Yelena (Venetia Twigg).
Their doctor friend Mikhail (David Tudor) is also a regular visitor to the family home, now even more so to drink with Vanya and also, though the family do not know it, to catch a glimpse at Yelena’s beauty.
He is not the only one desperate for her attentions, as the lonely, depressed and downtrodden Ivan is also in need of affection, seething with jealousy at how dutifully she follows her husband.
And the men are not the only people in this story struggling with desire,.
Sonia is also very happy to have the doctor regularly visiting, despite his purpose meaning she will have no happiness with him as he lusts after the stranger.
Alexander, Sonia’s father, is suffering with various illnesses, believing rest in the country will help him to relax after a life of writing, reading and attempting to gain notoriety in the city.
However, for Ivan who has spent years saving and working to pay for the professor’s books and livelihood, the idolness of his brother-in-law Alexander and jealousy over his new wife becomes the last straw, compounded when he realises he has yet another rival for her love in the doctor.
The drama becomes increasingly tense as further revelations come out, leading to the mother of family fights, tinged with tragedy over Ivan and Sonia’s lot in life.
Sonia, despite being heartbroken herself, tells her uncle they must continue to work through their personal misery and heartbreak, making her the true hero of the piece.
Given Chekhov’s beliefs over the environment, this adaptation certainly gives space for his words to flourish while steeped in a more modern take on his themes.
The doctor is clearly himself in literary form, trying to educate his friends about the desperate environmental needs around them, while having a fatalistic and Nietzschean view on his own life and love.
While Ivan is the total opposite, struggling with years of toil and pushing his own needs and concerns to one side, only for this work to be utterly forgotten.
His spiral into madness is devastating to say the least, as his earnest ways only come back to bite him when those with more cunning attempt to strip him of his innocence.
The heart of the story, however, is found in Sonia – a picture of youth torn down as she tries to work, helping to keep everyone happy while languishing in pain herself.
Foxey Hardman makes a stunning turn in this role, with her desperation clear from every teardrop and gesture.
Venetia Twigg as Yelena also shows how loneliness is as strong a prison as any, especially when her charmed life has left her with little more than a duty to love a man whose selfishness is palpable.
The space in the Old Red Lion Theatre is sparsely filled with wooden frames for the set, giving room for movement sections to help show how time shifts relentlessly, as well as to show the desolation felt by Sonia and Ivan.
While the themes may have been sometimes a little pointed, this drama was engrossing and full or passion from all the players.
There are only two nights left of the slow but Uncle Vanya is definitely worth seeking out for those who want to see an intimate, economical and well-told story which packs all the punch of a longer show.
Uncle Vanya will be at the Old Red Lion Theatre in Angel, London until Saturday, December 7
