UNCLE VANYA The Print Room, London W2.

Ask any British classical actor who his favourite playwrights are and he will almost certainly include Chekhov and this is not surprising since Chekhov has created so many unforgettable roles. Lucy Bailey has mustered a fine ensemble for her clear-eyed production of his masterpiece which has been given a witty and sharp adaptation by Mike Poulton. The audience, in two rows with their backs to the four walls, sits round a square acting-area, which allows for the tragicomic performances to be seen at exceptionally close quarters. All the characters in this stifling provincial backwater are unhappy. A Professor (David Yelland) and his beautiful young wife, Yelena, on a rare visit, have turned the household upside down and infected everybody with their indolence. Vanya (Iain Glen) has for 25 years slogged away to financially support the insufferably smug Professor’s academic career. Aroused by his bolt-out-of-the-blue decision to sell the estate, Vanya has a spectacular breakdown and attempts to shoot him twice, an incident which shocked and outraged the professors at Moscow University at the play’s premiere in 1899. William Houston is well cast as Astrov, the local doctor, a charismatic charmer and keen forest conservationist, who drinks too much, and blames Yelena (whom he and Vanya both fancy) for everything. Charlotte Emerson as the stoical Sonya ends the play on a strong religious note. David Shaw-Parker is a joy as Waffles.