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Uncle Vanya

Anton Chekhov

Terry Johnson

Don't be miserable, you wonderful woman; be a mermaid. There's the ocean; throw yourself in. Fall in love with some poor mortal and drag him down with you. Astonish us!

On an isolated country estate, Sonia and her Uncle Vanya are committed to a life of ceaseless toil. But when the ageing invalid Serebriakov and his bewilderingly beautiful young wife take up residence, a yearning envelops the household and disturbs the accustomed tedium. Friend and confidant Astrov grows lovelorn, Sonia's heart breaks and even Vanya falls under the spell. And so they fight, bond, belittle, lament, make peace and contemplate the odd murder.

Featuring sex, comedy and unbearable sadness in nineteenth-century Russia, this version of Anton Chekhov's Uncle Vanya was written and directed by Terry Johnson and opened at Hampstead Theatre, London, in November 2018.

And having weathered the storm, what's left? My feelings for you; a few droplets on a window pane, catching the sun, running down a way, drying to nothing.

  • Classification : Plays & Playscripts
  • Pub Date : DEC 6, 2018
  • Imprint : Faber Plays
  • Page Extent : 80
  • Binding : PB
  • ISBN : 9780571353941
  • Price : INR 1,099
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Anton Chekhov

Anton Chekhov, Russian dramatist and short-story writer, was born in 1860, the son of a grocer and the grandson of a serf. After graduating in medicine from Moscow University in 1884, he began to make his name in the theatre with the one-act comedies The Bear, The Proposal and The Wedding. His earliest full-length plays, Ivanov (1887) and The Wood Demon (1889), were not successful, and The Seagull, produced in 1896, was a failure until a triumphant revival by the Moscow Art Theatre in 1898. This was followed by Uncle Vanya (1899), Three Sisters (1901) and The Cherry Orchard (1904), shortly after the production of which Chekhov died. The first English translations of his plays were performed within five years of his death.

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Terry Johnson

Terry Johnson is a playwright and director. His dozen major theatre awards include a Tony for Best Director for La Cage Aux Folles, and Oliviers for Best Comedy for Hysteria and Cleo, Camping, Emmanuelle and Dick. He is a former Literary Associate at the Royal Court where five of his own plays - Insignificance, Cries from the Mammal House, Hysteria, Hitchcock Blonde and Piano/Forte - were first staged. Imagine Drowning, Dead Funny, Prism, Ken, and a version of Uncle Vanya all premiered at Hampstead, and Cleo, Camping, Emmanuelle and Dick and his adaptation of The London Cuckolds at the National Theatre. West End credits include Mrs Henderson Presents, The Duck House, End of the Rainbow, The Prisoner of Second Avenue, The Rise and Fall of Little Voice, Rain Man, Whipping It Up, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Hitchcock Blonde, The Graduate, Dead Funny, Hysteria, Elton John's Glasses and The Memory of Water. In 2014 he celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop with revivals at Stratford East of Oh What a Lovely War and Fings Ain't Wot They Used T'Be.

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