Uncle Vanya, Sidney Harman Hall, Shakespeare Theatre Company, Washington, DC

Hugh Bonneville (center) as Uncle Vanya with Sharon Lockwood as Grandmamon, Nancy Robinette as Nana, Melanie Field as Sonya, Tom Nelis as Alexandre, and Ito Aghayere as Yelena in Uncle Vanya at the Shakespeare Theatre. Photo credit: DJ Corey Photography.

A message from Artistic Director Simon Godwin, who directs the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s current production of Uncle Vanya, adapted by Conor McPherson, in the most recent edition of STC Asides, which serves as the program for the STC production, includes the fact that this is the first foray for STC into the works of Russian playwright Anton Chekhov in the almost 40 years STC has been producing classic plays. Given Chekhov’s importance in the development of modern drama, this is quite a surprise. Based on the success of the current production, I hope the DC audience will not have to wait nearly that long for another of Chekhov’s plays. (Note: This production is in association with the Berkeley Repertory Theatre, where it was produced earlier this year.) This production is an adaptation by five-time Tony nominated Irish playwright Conor McPherson.

“Modern drama” is often considered to have been originated in the 1890s, largely due to the work and influence of Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen, Swedish playwright August Strindberg, and Russian playwright Chekhov. Their works differed from much of what had gone before by focusing on a more realistic kind of theatre, true to life and revealing characters’ thought processes. Chekhov found a kindred soul (remember that we do not always get along with our kin) in Constantin Stanislavsky, who first directed Chekhov’s plays at the Moscow Art Theatre, and whose work with actors formed the basis of much acting training that continues to this day.

Chekhov was a fascinating character in and of himself. Trained as a physician, he began writing short stories for publication to help support his family and put himself through medical school. His success as a writer of short stories led to a commission to write his first play, Ivanov. His medical training resulted in his objective observation of people, including their relationships, motivations, desires, and interactions. His reputation as a playwright rests primarily on four major plays: The Seagull (1895), Uncle Vanya (1897), The Three Sisters (1900), and The Cherry Orchard (1903). Sadly, Chekhov succumbed to tuberculosis in 1904 at the age of 44. One can only imagine the plays that were never written due to his untimely death.

There is debate about how to classify Chekhov’s plays: STC’s Dramaturg, Dr. Drew Lichtenberg, notes in Asides that Chekhov considered The Seagull and The Cherry Orchard to be comedies and The Three Sisters a drama. Uncle Vanya, on the other hand, subtitled “Scenes from Country Life,” contains elements of both. (The argument could easily be made that the same is true of his other three major plays.)

We are on an estate in the Russian countryside. A retired professor, Alexandre, has swooped in with his much younger, quite beautiful second wife, Yelena. The professor’s first wife was the deceased sister of Vanya, who currently maintains the estate, and where the professor’s daughter, Sonya, and Grandmaman (mother to Vanya and former mother-in-law to Alexandre) currently reside. Alexandre’s imperious attitude has disrupted the household’s routine. For example, Doctor Astrov, a friend of Vanya, has been summoned to the estate by Alexandre for no apparent reason, and spends much of his time there waiting. Vanya’s household also includes Nana, an elderly family nanny/nursemaid, and Waffles, a former landowner who is staying with the family.

Suffice it to say that the play explores the relationships, familial, romantic, and legal, as the characters interact with each other. Romantic love is desired, offered, and rejected, violence is threatened and committed, land ownership is questioned, dreams and aspirations are exposed and denied. The characters, in their bucolic setting, are often bored: their remote location means that to a certain extent they have only themselves with whom to interact and they question what purpose they can serve. Their isolation gives them perhaps too much time and space for introspection and their frustration at the lack of opportunity to do something.

As in life, Chekhov’s plays do not guarantee happy or satisfying endings. At the end of the play, Sonya appears to accept (for the characters remaining on the estate) their status. All they can do, basically, is to keep going.

Hugh Bonneville as Uncle Vanya and Melanie Field as Sonya in Uncle Vanya. Photo credit: DJ Corey Photography.

Rereading this rather vague plot outline, I fear, makes the play sound much drearier and more serious than this production proves to be. I never laughed out loud when reading Uncle Vanya, but found myself doing just that for much of this production. This cast, under Godwin’s direction, finds comedy in the minute details of interaction, never missing an opportunity to incorporate physical comedy in places one might never have expected it.

This cast! Hugh Bonneville, most famous for having played the dignified Count Robert Crawley in television’s “Downton Abbey,” is the marquee star here. Bonneville appears to be having a fine time as the title character and proves himself capable of characterizations just about as far from Crawley as imaginable. His Vanya is bawdy and unsophisticated, sometimes crude, with moments of almost-slapstick behavior, while also tenderly and sincerely declaring his love. But Bonneville also shows us a man who has reached his limits of dealing with some people and who must act.

Although their friendship is never explained, Vanya’s friend, Dr. Astrov, is played by Tony-winner John Benjamin Hickey. Hickey is one of those character actors you have seen (and appreciated) in a number of television and film appearances, but whose name you may not remember. As Dr. Astrov, Hickey is a suitable foil to Bonneville’s Vanya, evoking a more debonair air than Vanya, exuding an energy that is rather world-weary but also committed to serving his patients. (Dr. Astrov well may be the kind of doctor Chekhov believed himself to be.)

John Benjamin Hickey as Dr. Astrov and Hugh Bonneville as Uncle Vanya in Uncle Vanya. Photo credit: DJ Corey Photography.

When she first appears, Melanie Field as Sonya seems to be relegated to a role that isn’t quite that important to the play. That impression turns out to be totally incorrect. Her Sonya is juggling so many relationships and feelings: she is pretty much ignored by her father (in fact, Uncle Vanya seems to have been more of a father figure to her than her “real” father), she develops a tentative relationship with her stepmother, practically a contemporary, and is reticent in expressing her romantic interest in Dr. Astrov. Field walks the fine line among all of these conflicting feelings, eventually becoming the beacon of sanity for those who remain on the estate.

Ito Aghayere is assigned perhaps the most glamorous role in the play as Yelena, second wife to Alexandre and stepmother to Sonya. Aghayere presents a beautiful on-stage presence (assisted by the character’s sumptuous costumes) and manages to create an interesting image of boredom as well as an object of desire for more than one of the male characters, even as she conveys sincere interest in developing a meaningful relationship to stepdaughter Sonya.

Chekhov was noted for never including elements in a story (or play) that would not have some significance. STC regulars Craig Wallace as Waffles and Nancy Robinette as Nana contribute to that significance. (Robinette first came to my attention in The Trip to Bountiful and Wallace as Scrooge in A Christmas Carol, both at Ford’s Theatre.) Though they may appear to be peripheral characters, Robinette’s Nana gives the production a historical context and Wallace’s Waffles provides some needed comic relief, but also proves to be a voice of perspective.

Tom Nelis is appropriately disruptive and obnoxious as retired professor Alexandre, whose very presence incites the responses of those who reside on the estate. Ungrateful and entitled, he is in many ways the villain of the piece. Sharon Lockwood as Grandmaman appears to be playing both sides, reverential to Alexandre and unappreciative to her son Vanya.

Godwin’s direction elicits fascinating performances from his cast and communicates the complex (and complicated) relationships among the characters. Ultimately, he helps the audience recognize the truth of Sonya’s understanding that the only way forward is to, basically, “keep on keeping on.”

Robert Brill’s set design takes on different forms: from the beginning of the play (or even before), we are in a theatrical space that defies period, in which we are not sure whether we are seeing actors or characters as they prepare for the performance. By the end of the play, we are in a more recognizable, more realistic location. Costumes designed by Susan Hilferty and Heather C. Freedman stay in almost-neutral colors, projecting a somewhat-neutral period while also suiting the characters. Lighting designed by Jen Schriever, sound design by Darron L. West, and wig design by Satellite Wigs, Inc., suit the moments of the play without calling undue attention to themselves. Suitable "mood" music on the cello is delivered by Kina Kantor.

Rereading this review, I fear that I have not adequately emphasized just how funny this production is. It provides an opportunity to see an admired actor (Bonneville) and an under-appreciated “I know I have seen him before” actor (Hickey) do extraordinary work that demonstrates his versatility and breadth in a not-often-seen masterwork written by one of the pillars of modern theatre.

When I last taught Modern Drama, more than 30 years ago, one of the questions I used to ask my students was, “Why is the play titled as it is?” In this instance, I would suggest that one of the best responses would be “because the relationship between Sonya and her Uncle Vanya may well be the most important relationship in the play.” The Sonya/Uncle Vanya relationship is certainly stronger and more sincere than that between Sonya and her father and between either Sonya or Vanya and anyone else.

I look forward to next season’s STC production of Ibsen’s The Wild Duck as well as the next STC production of a Chekhov play in the next few seasons. In the meantime, Uncle Vanya continues at STC’s Sidney Harman Hall through April 20. Don’t miss it.