By Neil Durham
WORTH A LOOK?: ***1/2 RUNTIME: 110 minutes (no interval)
WHEN?: Saturday 30 September, booking through 21 October 2023
Andrew Scott (Present Laughter, Old Vic) is 1 of this country’s finest actors but this intricate, multi-character Chekhov drama is ill-suited to a 1-man show.
- Read on for reasons including how this was a valiant effort but not our favourite Vanya
Scott, whose Andrew Haigh film opposite Paul Mescal (A Streetcar Named Desire, Almeida) All Of Us, Strangers features in this month’s London Film Festival, is game however which is a joy if flawed.
It doesn’t help perhaps that just before Covid we saw a fantastic production of Uncle Vanya at the Harold Pinter Theatre starring Richard Armitage, Toby Jones and Sex Education‘s Aimee Lou Wood.
It’s the story of a man – here, in this modern-day production, a film director – who returns home from the city to the country estate of his late wife with a new, younger partner who beguiles the brother who has begrudgingly devoted his life to the property and doctor with environmental concerns who has in turn captured the heart of the film director’s daughter.
Nothing much happens in Vanya, here adapted by Simon Stephens (Song From Far Away, Hampstead Theatre) and yet there is no shortage of anguish with daughter Sonya falling for the doctor and her stepmother confronting him to find out whether Sonya’s feelings are reciprocated.
Director Sam Yates (The Phlebotomist, Hampstead Theatre) gives Scott plenty of props to work with and we enjoyed how he signalled which character was which by assigning them a necklace to play with, a dishcloth to wring, a cigarette to smoke or even sunglasses to wear.
Back in 2018 we caught Scott performing a monologue in Stephens’ Sea Wall at the Old Vic and said then: ‘Sea Wall is certainly the most affecting of Stephens’ plays we’ve seen and we can see why it was written for Scott because it is all the more powerful in its conclusion because of the easy but, as we learn later, enforced breeziness of its opening.’
However that was half an hour long and this is feature film-length and, given the complications of the plot, it is time needed and well used by Scott but we couldn’t help struggling to follow who was saying what and to whom.
Scott does manage to convey the occasional sensuality of the piece and despite being the only person on stage it was occasionally surprisingly sexy as he portrayed 2 illicit lovers foolishly acting on impulse.
He also nails the pain of Sonya’s unrequited love for the doctor in what is the very beating and emotional heart of the piece but we couldn’t help but agree with writer Stephens’ own dig at those who adapt others’ work instead of creating their own contained here.
We recently saw Eddie Izzard perform a 1-person Great Expectations at the Garrick and said: ‘The most emotional moments during this 1-woman performance of the Dickens coming of age classic are when Izzard, who plays all the 20-or-so parts, conveys the heartache of not being the choice of someone loved by main character Pip.’
We spy Dustin Hoffman in the stalls behind us and would imagine he thought, like us, that Scott had bitten off more than he could chew and while it was a valiant effort this wasn’t ever going to be our favourite Vanya.
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