Uncle Vanya

But it is the first one I could not stop watching, since it was on PBS Great Performances I had time to look up the play, inject a little understanding into why it is still around and companies keep producing it, who the actors were otherwise if I had been in the theater I may not have stayed awake until the end; I often hate to see the ends of things for some reason. The actors were great and for the first time I understood what was going on; honestly there was not a character I could not feel empathy for; these lives we live. I heartily recommend you turn it on, put on 'closed captioning if you need to and listen to their story and their lives; ahh, aching for somebody who gives you nothing back...we humans.

A rare upside to the brutal COVID pandemic in 2020 was the thought to film and release this otherwise stage-only version of Uncle Vanya. I wasn't at all familiar with Chekhov but I'm a huge fan of Toby Jones so thought I'd give it a whirl when the BBC put it on at Christmas - it was strange at first to see "a performance" filmed and felt like a throwback to 1970s television, slightly awkward, slightly staged. You get into it though and it adds a wild spontaneity to the more tense moments. The 1800s Russian play is obviously not at the height of cultural relevance but there are some startlingly existential beats here that feel timeless - not least the doctor's ideas of deforestation - but more perhaps the concept of the characters "carrying on regardless" like the actors have through plague, through political turmoil, onward and onward. The melancholy of their helplessness, trapped in situations not of their making is striking. "We shall patiently bear the trials that fate imposes on us".

The most beautiful Uncle Vanya I've seen in my life, with state-of-the-art performances by all the entire cast of Harold Pinter Theatre, all simply amazing, especially the great actress, and so adorable, Aimee Lou Wood as Sonya, and the great Toby Jones as Vanya.

I watched this tonight with just one other person across the cinema. At the end, he rose and gave a silent standing ovation.

This is certainly one of the best renditions of Vanya you can find streaming. The performances and directing are just outstanding.