Review: Uncle Vanya by The Classic Theatre of San Antonio
by Michael Meigs

San Antonio's Classic Theatre has opened its second season with a beautifully designed, perceptive and subtly paced production of one of my favorite works, Chekhov's Uncle Vanya.

That's the shorthand version of the title. It was published as Uncle Vanya - Scenes from Country Life. Although at the heart of it there sits an eternally frustrated love triangle -- Vanya and Dr. Astrov both yearning for the unhappily married Yelena -- the play contains much, much more.

These scenes from country life contain an uneasy, boozy friendship between Vanya (John Minton) and Dr. Astrov (Anthony Ciaravino). Vanya and his niece Sonya (Laura Darnell) have spent long years managing the estate so as to finance the studies and urban living expenses of Sonya's father Serebryakov. Serebryakov (Allan S. Ross) has now retired to the estate, gout-ridden, cranky and self-important, after a mediocre academic career. We see relatively little of him, but we see a lot of his current wife Yelena (Emily Spicer) , who is scarcely older than his daughter Sonya.

 

As in all of Chekhov's dramas, we listen to conversations about the dissatisfactions of rural life, discussions of frustrated ideals and idle speculations about the future. His characters are as vivid as life but anything but heroic -- they are, instead, tentative, indecisive and yearning, perhaps the first in theatrical history to portray those very modern qualities.

Because of illness, Chekhov was never present for the openings of his plays at Stanislavski's Moscow Arts Theatre, home to that master's new, more natural acting style. But Chekhov was continually frustrated by Stanislavski's inability to understand his assertion that he meant his dramas to be seen as comedies.

Not comedy in the ha-ha! sense or even comedy defined as everything-turns-out-well-at-the-end. Comedy, rather, as a broader contemplation of the limits of human aspiration. Just as important as the potentially hot drama of the love triangle in Uncle Vanya are the themes of work, neglect of potential, regret and incomprehension. For example, in the first scene while waiting to be received by his patient, Serebryakov, Dr. Astrov says, "It drags you down, this life. You're surrounded by crackpots, nothing but crackpots; you live with them two or three years, and little by little, without even noticing it, you become odd yourself. It's inevitable.. . ." 

Astrov goes on to comment, "What are people going to say about all this a hundred years from now?"  In the program notes, director Andrew Thornton cites the doctor's comment and adds, "Well, here we are. What are we saying?"

First -- that this production is beautifully designed and costumed. Allan Ross's set is constituted of stark white wooden frames that are swiftly shifted and repositioned as the acts go forward, presenting spaces that are evocative but tantalizingly empty, inviting our imagination. In counterpart, costume designer Margaret Mitchell has clothed these characters in exquisite detail, visually representing the contradictions between their city tastes and the dull realities of the countryside. 

To similar effect, there's a real bronze samovar gracing a table covered with an astonishingly delicate cloth.

Second -- that director Thornton and the cast emphasize the unrealized love triangle, somewhat diminishing the broader themes of the piece. Anthony Ciaravino as Dr. Astrov is so strikingly handsome, dapper, plausible and concentrated on Yelena that his professed depression over unavailing long hours of treating peasants sounds more like a pick-up line than deep-bound ennui. 

 Astrov has a long speech to Yelena in Act III, describing the maps he has crafted in order to demonstrate the progressive deterioration of forests and wildlife over the past 50 years. Ciaravino races through it, a preliminary to the swingeing move that he's about to make on Yelena. He's appealing and seductive throughout the play, and one understands how poor young Sonya came to be so besotted with him. 

Emily Spicer as Yelena is, frankly, luscious. As Vanya gushes to Astrov in the first act, "How lovely she is! How lovely! In all my life I've never seen a more beautiful woman!" Spicer plays Yelena as watchful, carefully correct, and yet with patent vulnerability. She is comfortable in turning aside approaches from either of her would-be lovers, and she shows delicate, caged emotion when dealing with cranky Serebryakov, when reconciling with Sonya, and when rewarding herself and the rejected Astrov with a kiss upon departure.

 

Vanya is a complex character. At 47, he concludes that he has wasted his life and that he faces nothing but drudgery and deprivation for the rest of it. By his count that means, at best, for another 13 years, for he doesn't expect to live beyond the age of 60. (Probably a generous estimate -- Chekhov himself died at 44.) 

 

John Minton gives Vanya the boisterous emotions of a delayed adolescent, driven into a froth by the arrival of Yelena. Minton and director Thornton come up with vivid bits of business for Vanya. For example, when in his cups he clutches his bottle as if sweet talking Yelena. He ends that crucial, inebriated monologue railing about his disappointment with Serebryakov, delivering his words with increasing anger to the professor's empty chair. Vanya winds up clutching that chair with a strangler's grip. Through his Act III crisis Minton gusts like a storm; through Act IV he visibly subsides steadily into the stunned realization that his life will not change. Not ever.

The remaining characters revolve like lesser comets around this triple constellation. Allan Ross is polished and oblivious as the professor. Anne Collins is family nurse Marina, quite bewildered when the professor's habits turn regular routines topsy-turvey, and Justin Laughlin is "Waffles," the earnest small-holder who hangs around the house. 

 Laura Darnell as Sonya is slim and expressive, yet she seems young to have labored so long with Vanya in managing the estate. In contrast, we understand Vanya's immense fatigue, which motivates Sonya's lengthy, beautiful monologue at the play's close. She begins, "We shall go on living, Uncle Vanya. We shall live through a long, long chain of days and endless evenings; we shall patiently bear the trials that fate sends us; we'll work for others, now and in our old age, without ever knowing rest, and when our time comes, we shall die submissively -- "

Director Andrew Thornton and the cast establish a fine rhythm for the action, with a scrupulous respect for Chekhov's diversions and anti-climaxes.

I was repeatedly vexed by their use of chairs placed downstage left and downstage right, in which they regularly placed actors with their backs to the audience. As a result, some of us on the sides of the audience space suffered through sequences during which we saw nothing but backsides. These were short; and when placed there, Emily Spicer as Yelena was particularly adept at cheating at least to profile. Even so, watching action on the sofa through that empty open-backed chair seemed at times like peering at wildfowl through the reeds.

Thanks to the Classic Theatre San Antonio for the loving care given to this production. On the long drive back to Austin I renewed my resolution to follow their four-play season, presented at the Jump-Start Theatre, located in the Blue Star complex south of the historical district. One advantage was that the brew pub of the Blue Star Brewing Company is immediately adjacent to the arts studios and the theatre. 

Classic Theatre's next offering is Goldsmith's She Stoops to Conquer, October 15 - November 1. Their tag line from the play: "A reserved lover, it is said, always makes a suspicious husband." 

 Review by Deborah Martin in the San Antonio Express-News, August 21

Review by Thomas Jenkins in the San Antonio Current (sacurrent.com), August 23 

EXTRA

Click to view program of Uncle Vanya by Classic Theatre San Antonio

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Uncle Vanya
by Anton Chekhov
Classic Theatre of San Antonio