Uncle Vanya

by Anton Chekhov

Overview

This structurally and psychologically compact drama takes place on an estate in 19th-century Russia, exploring the complex interrelationships between a retired professor, his second wife, and the daughter and brother-in-law from his first marriage. Interwoven themes of weakness, delusion, and despair–balanced by an underlying message of courage and hope–make this one of the most expressive of Chekhov's works.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783734013690
Publisher:	Outlook Verlag
Publication date:	09/20/2018
Pages:	54
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.25(d)

About the Author

Richard Nelson’s many plays include Illyria; The Gabriels: Election Year in the Life of One Family (Hungry, What Did You Expect?, and Women of a Certain Age); The Apple Family: Scenes from Life in the Country (That Hopey Changey Thing, Sweet and Sad, and Sorry, Regular Singing); Nikolai and the Others; Goodnight Children Everywhere (Olivier Award for Best Play); Franny’s Way; Some Americans Abroad; Frank’s Home; Two Shakespearean Actors; and James Joyce’s The Dead (with Shaun Davey; Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical). He has also written for film, namely the screenplays for Hyde Park-on-Hudson and Ethan Frome. He is the recipient of the PEN/Laura Pels Master Playwright Award and an Academy Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He is an Honorary Associate Artist of the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky have translated the works of Leo Tolstoy, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Nikolai Gogol, Anton Chekhov, Boris Pasternak, and Mikhail Bulgakov. Their translations of The Brothers Karamazov and Anna Karenina won the PEN Translation Prize in 1991 and 2002, respectively. Pevear, a native of Boston, and Volokhonsky, of St. Petersburg, are married and live in France.

Editorial Reviews

"Pevear and Volokhonsky are at once scrupulous translators and vivid stylists of English."

New Yorker

boredom, waste, loss and wretchedness are seldom so eloquent and engaging.” —Georgina Brown, Mail on Sunday

“Nobody could write about underdogs as well as Chekov. He was their chronicler, their unsentimental spokesman, their tactful psychoanalyst.” —John Peter, Sunday Times

From the Publisher

"Nobody quite walks the tightrope between comedy and tragedy with the aplomb of Chekhov… in McPherson's version, more than any others I've seen, the women get to deliver the emotional gut-punches that balance the humour."

Broadway World

"[Conor McPherson's adaptation is] perfectly weighted... does not radically reinvent or revolutionise Chekov's 19th-century story. It returns us to the great, mournful spirit of Chekhov's tale about unrequited love, ageing and disappointment in middle-age, while giving it a sleeker, modern beat. McPherson's script has a stripped, vivid simplicity which quickens the pace of the drama... Every character is fully realised, including the ancillary roles that bring more than comic relief... a perfect tragicomedy."

Guardian

"A Vanya for our times."

Evening Standard

"As accessible as a TV drama, without ever betraying the great, melancholy, insightful soul that has made the play last for as long as it has. It is radical and revelatory without ever being gimmicky or insensitive… McPherson pulls off a feat of magical reinvention, and allows us to see the play anew."

WhatsOnStage

"McPherson's new adaptation feels almost impossibly contemporary in the way it packs in so much lust, wit, rage and regret."

The Times

"Succeeds resoundingly in making the turn-of-the-20th-century cares of the original resonate today… the contemporary relevance is startling."

The Arts Desk

"Pevear and Volokhonsky are at once scrupulous translators and vivid stylists of English."

New Yorker