UNCLE VANYA Vaudeville Theatre

Scenes from Russian provincial life in 1899: “If only you knew how unhappy I am!” they cry. Only Chekhov, you feel, could have all his characters in tears and the audience watching them roaring with laughter. Ask any classical actor who his favourite playwrights are and Chekhov’s name will invariably come up. But then he offers actors such wonderful roles. There have been opportunities to see four different Uncle Vanyas this year, which may strike even his keenest admirer as somewhat excessive. It might have been more interesting this time round to revive instead Chekhov’s first draft, The Wood Demon, which is not staged very often and is a perfectly good play in its own right. Still Ken Stott and Samuel West are well worth seeing as Vanya and Astrov, who have been cheated of a fulfilling life and fall in love with a young married woman who has infected everybody with her idleness. Lindsay Posner’s solid, traditional production is not helped by the cramped set and the over-long scene changes.