While it’s rather lightweight, Classika Theatre’s production of “Uncle Vanya,” Anton Chekhov’s psychological classic, is the result of two directors: Classika's Russian-born Artistic Director Inna Shapiro and Bulgarian-born Ivan Kovatchev.
Last fall, Classika tackled two one-act plays by the 19th century Russian writer, under the title "Chekhov's Jokes." That production struck a fine balance between the sadness and the silliness that so many of his scripts contain. This time, however, they are working on a more difficult, more challenging drama.
Some directors opt to emphasize the humor in Chekhov's work. Others opt for melodrama, to highlight the psychological aspects of his character studies. In this production neither humor nor drama take precedence. The balancing act sounds good in theory but results in a rather bland end-product.
Chekhov's 1899 “Uncle Vanya,” which explores the lack of purpose in the lives of rural Russians, has brought highly praised performances from a list of the stage’s most famous stars, from Laurence Olivier to Peter O'Toole and from Lillian Gish to Julie Christie.
The play attracts such illustrious performers because the roles challenge an actor or actress to find depth under a surface that hides inner substance. Famous directors like Mike Nichols and Michael Mayer have plumbed the depths of the relationship between Vanya, a burnt-out shell of a man and the professor he has served, the woman he would love to love, the doctor who is wooing her and the professor's daughter who would rather the doctor woo her.
Often, joint directed production lack a single viewpoint. Whether that’s the problem here, whether it’s the limitations of the cast or the shortcomings of this translation from the original Russian, none of these souls seem to have been searched before the end of the play.
Instead, the people who start the evening in torment are still tormented at the end, and little has been revealed as to underlying psychological reasons for their torment.
Vanya in this production is Brian MacIan, reunited here with Renata Loman who played opposite him in last fall's "Chekhov's Jokes." MacIan, who looks a healthy, hearty 30-something, is a bit young for the role, when Vanya is more properly a burned-out wreck closer to 50 (the text says he has been managing the professor's estate for 25 years).
There is a brief flash of passion and pain in the second act when Kim Curtis' Dr. Astrov, who would rather repair the health of forests than his patients, gives in to his lust for the Professor's wife (Loman)in a seductive approach that almost overcomes her resistance.
Curtis gives the most passionate and also the most varied performance. He is delightfully subtle in the opening scene and powerful in his verbal defense of the environment, as if Chekhov had been writing a play for the late-20th century environmental movement rather than a psychological examination of a stagnant society that was lurching ever closer to revolution.
Another strong performance comes from Stacey Lane Smith as the professor’s daughter. She seems entirely too pretty for a character who obsesses over her own ugliness, but she plays it such that it may sinply be post-adolescent angst. Still, her "I am so ugly" speeches seem misplaced here.
Classika's tiny store-front theater in Shirlington puts the audience in close proximity to the action of any play and this one is no exception. Ksenya Litvak, a graduate of the St. Petersburg State Theatre Arts Academy in Russia, has designed a set that serves the play well with transparent walls that reveal comings and goings. She also designed the costumes which are appropriate for both the time and the place of the play.