Vanya at Richmond Theatre

There are three main names associated with this play, all of which I am interested in; Anton Chekhov’s wrote the original play Uncle Vanya, Simon Stephens wrote this new version and Andrew Scott played all the parts.

I half thought about doing a Venn diagram of my experience of these people but quickly though better of it. Suffice to say I have seen several plays by both Chekhov and Stephens, a few with Scott, another Stephens version of a Chekhov play and another Stephens play staring Scott, so the Venn diagram would have several entries in the overlaps of two people. This would be the first entry in the central overlap of all three people.

I presume that of these three names that Andrew Scott was the big draw, while he would have been third on my list, and the poster certainly reflected that. The promoters were certainly expecting a big crowd for this pre-west end run and the tickets were priced accordingly. The price for my normal seat was around £60, I think, so I went up a level instead and paid £30 for Upper Circle A14. I may have been a little cautious with my money but I was off the mark quickly enough to bag a central seat in the front row,

On the day the performance, and the entire week-long run, were sold out so I guess the promoters knew what they were doing.

The set surprised me a little with its modernity and clutter. I never understood the point of the modernity (other that audience recognition perhaps) but the clutter soon made sense as the different parts of the stage were often used to represent different characters, e.g. Helena often sat on the swing.

I had seen Uncle Vanya a few times, three I think, and that certainly helped as the differences between the characters were slight visually, e.g. Scott held a dishcloth in one persona. Of course the voices were different, but not very different.

Uncle Vanya's (Ivan's) story got a little lost in the theatrics and my attention was drawn to the performance at the expense of the story, which is not that dramatic anyway, despite the appearance of Chekhov's favourite prop, a gun. It did not feel like the retelling of a masterpiece, it was more like a brand new play. Nothing particularly wrong in that and most people were there for Scott not Chekhov anyway.

The Stephens version had a lot more swearing, though nothing like the level of some of his other plays (Christmas, Herons, ...), and also quite a few moments of humour that often played on only having one person on stage. Vanya is not a comedy but I chortled quite a bit.

Being a one-person show the success of Vanya depended on Scott and he delivered.

I do not think that anyone will love Anton Chekhov or Simon Stephens more after seeing Vanya, and they may even forget that they were involved. Scott, on the other-hand, Andrew Scott cemented his reputation and he is what made the evening work for me.