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Uncle Vanya - There Are Moments to Savor in This Uneven Chekhov
Categories: UncategorizedTheatergoers spend a lot of time craning their heads during Austin Pendleton's revival of Anton Chekhov's Uncle Vanya, which opened last night at Classic Stage Company. Scenic designer Santo Loquasto has provided an appropriately claustrophobic two-story set to represent the agrarian Russian estate that's inhabited by Vanya (Denis O'Hare), his niece Sonya (Mamie Gummer) and a host of other characters, but the stage is also bisected by a phalanx of wooden pillars that often obscure the action. There's a marvelous rabbit warren-like visual to the design, but there come times when, no matter where one is sitting, one's straining to see the actors. Theatergoers may find that there's an additional strain put on their necks – a sort of whiplash – during this uneven staging from Austin Pendleton: individual performances vacillate, from the sublime to the wooden, often within the blink of an eye.
This classic play, that's part comedy and part drama, unfolds over the course of a few months on the estate as Vanya and Sonya host her father, the retired professor (George Morfogen) and the much younger woman whom he's married after his wife's death, Yelena (Maggie Gyllenhaal). The professor's often childishly petulant behavior and demands have disrupted life on the estate, and so too, has the gorgeous Yelena's mere presence. Vanya pines for her, as does Astrov (Peter Sarsgaard), the local physician who's often called to see after one of the professor's many maladies. Yelena, bored with not only provincial life, but life in general, isn't aware of her affect on these two men, but she can see that her step-daughter cares deeply for Astrov.
Pendleton's production, which uses a simple and colloquial new translation from Carol Rocamora, deftly captures the sense of life on the estate and the effect that these characters have on one another in cramped quarters. And there are times when each of these actors delivers when a performance that border on the sublime. A heart-to-heart conversation that Sonya and Yelena share is extremely touching, as Sonya confesses her feelings for Astrov. Similarly, whenever O'Hare, whose performance can be curiously idiosyncratic, to the point of literally chewing on the scenery, and Sarsgaard square off, the tension between the two men, who only hint at their romantic rivalry, is palpable. Throughout Gyllenhaal, looking gorgeous? In Suzy Benzinger's period gowns, conveys Yelena's unsystematic sensuality, but whenever she and Sarsgaard share the stage their performances falter. It's almost as if the pair (a couple offstage) does not want to betray themselves or their relationship.
It's acting that's the stuff of both magic and stuffiness. Only Gummer, seen in several other NYC productions of late, and daughter of actress Meryl Streep, delivers consistently. Her understated work as Sonya can often communicate three or four emotions at once. At a moment when Sonya wants to yell at her father because of his behavior, Sonya finds him in a vaguely intimate moment with Yelena. Gummer manages to communicate not only Sonya's distress – which is prompted primarily by her love of Astrov, but also her exasperation and her discomfort at seeing her father with a woman other than her mother.
Like Loquasto's set which is a series of tiered compartments, Gummer's performance is a terrific amalgam of feelings stacked on top of one another, and all one can do is watch without moving to see where the action will go next; a respite from the seesawing that pervades so much of this "Vanya."
---- Andy Propst
Uncle Vanya plays at Classic Stage Company (136 East 13th Street). Performances are Tuesday through Friday at 8pm; Saturday at 2 and 8pm; and Sunday at 2pm. Tickets are $70 and $75 and can be purchased by calling 212-352-3101. Online ticketing and further information is also available at www.ClassicStage.org.
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