Why did turn-of-the-20th century Russian playwright Anton Chekhov name “Uncle Vanya” after his play’s most unhappy, most aimless, most pitiful and self-pitying character?
As Vanya, actor Hugh Bonneville (the patriarch in “Downton Abbey”) has the answer.
In this relatively new translation by Irish playwright Conor McPherson now at Berkeley Repertory Theatre in a coproduction with Shakespeare Theatre Company of Washington D.C., Bonneville is supported, of course, by a terrific cast led by a terrific director: Shakespeare Theatre’s Simon Godwin.
McPherson’s smooth translation, which mostly retains the familiar-sounding text, only very occasionally seeming more modern, feels entirely natural. Similarly, the costumes by Susan Hilferty and Heather C. Freedman, period with a touch of contemporary style, are a perfect fit.
Equally natural is Robert Brill’s scenic design: a shady garden indicated by a rug and some pillows for lounging about, the kitchen of the country estate and the drawing room. (During one set change, ensemble member Kina Kantor so beautifully plays the cello onstage, you hardly notice the flurry of moving furniture.)
And lounge about the characters somehow manage to do in this quite physically active production, from cranky and volatile Vanya, who is at first sleeping face down under the rug, to neighbor Astrov (John Benjamin Hickey), the doctor who has lost his love for medicine and now cares only for vodka, saving the environmentally threatened forest that surrounds this estate and pining away for beautiful, elusive house guest Yelena.
Chekhov’s characters are famous for always loving the wrong person. In “Uncle Vanya,” both Vanya and Astrov pine for Yelena, the young second wife of the much older, pedantic professor (played by Tom Nelis). “We are the most boring people on the estate,” remarks the indolent Yelena. As played by Ito Aghayere, and dressed entirely in white like a beacon, she is mysterious, quietly observant, the perfect receptacle for the restless fantasies of the two men.
The overly long visit of professor and wife has completely upended the smooth, if dull, daily proceedings of the longtime residents of the estate. Among other disruptions, it has brought to a head the hopeless yearning of unglamorous Sonya, the professor’s daughter (played by Melanie Field with wonderfully steely vigor) for Astrov.
And it has highlighted, for Sonya’s Uncle Vanya, the ways in which he has subverted his own future by toiling away as an unappreciated and unrewarded manager on this property which he in fact does not own.
Even the peripheral characters who live and work here, all beautifully limned, are affected by the upheaval that the professor and Yelena have caused: the professor’s worshipful former mother-in-law (Sharon Lockwood), the struggling-to-be-noticed lodger, Waffles (Craig Wallace) and a servant (Nancy Robinette).
Chekhov usually introduces his characters rather awkwardly by way of informative autobiographical details they tell each other for our benefit. Here, and much more satisfyingly, the little speeches are staged as monologues to the audience. You almost feel like you’re part of this unhappy-in-their-own-way family.
This is a “Vanya” for modern audiences that surely Chekhov would have loved. It’s a perfectly balanced blend of the environmental issues that were dear to his heart but not well known to his audiences at the time, and the despair of facing a life not well spent. It provokes, rather than tears or sentimentality, the kind of audience laughter that comes from a deep recognition of the eternal comedy of the human condition.
As for Vanya, played by Bonneville with such endearing, childlike humor, rage and self-loathing, it’s clear why he is the play’s central figure. He is the quintessential comical, embarrassing fool—a universal everyman (and woman) indeed, one that we can identify with all too well.
Shakespeare Theatre Company and Berkeley Repertory Theatre’s co-production of “Uncle Vanya” continues through March 23 at Peet’s Theatre, 2025 Addison St., Berkeley. Tickets are $108 to $304 at berkeleyrep.org.
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