★★★★☆
Since it was first performed in 1899, the endless adaptations of Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya speak to its eternal themes. What does it mean to live a good life? Is there a path out of despair? How can we coexist when those we’re closest to also feel like our captors?
They’re the questions we most consistently turn to art for – seeking answers, assurance, at the very least recognition that we’re not alone in asking them.
Melbourne Theatre Company’s new production of the Anton Chekhov classic, adapted by Joanna Murray-Smith and directed by Anne-Louise Sarks, grapples with these big ideas, but doesn’t quite find a firm grip.
The play centres on an assortment of distant family living at a dilapidated estate. A young woman, Sonya (Philippa Northeast), owns and runs the estate, supporting her narcissistic professor father Serebryakov (Shaun Micallef) and his much younger wife Yelena (Catherine Văn-Davies).
She’s aided at the estate by her uncle Vanya (Daniel Henshall), grandmother (Carolyn Bock), and elderly servants (Evelyn Krape and Don Bridges). The local doctor (Fayssal Bazzi) is a frequent visitor to the estate – almost their only contact with the outside world.
Murray-Smith and Sarks’ adaptation elevates the centrality of Sonya, the glue between the characters, and one of the only balms of hope in this otherwise bleak and bitter play.
Northeast is charming as a gritty young woman who is determined to keep up her duty in the face of disappointment from all those around her. Yet at times she’s asked to stretch this character to caricature; in her histrionic crush on the doctor, and a tendency to revert to a gratingly Pollyanna-ish attitude.
To paraphrase Tolstoy, every character is unhappy in their own way. Vanya’s despair is loudest. He resents the work he’s put into the estate to the benefit of Serebryakov and detests growing old, feeling that he has achieved nothing.
Yelena languishes in her own kind of nihilism. Committed to a marriage with a much older man, she gives way to an extreme passivity and lack of purpose. Even the doctor, who espouses a vision of conservation and hopes to leave the world a better place, falls prey to moments of gloom.
There’s so much gold to be mined in these subtle differences of experience; the tipping points between despair and rigid determination, hope and giving up. But the characters talk past each other; there’s little dialogue between their points of view.
Still, the cast deliver strong performances that bring out both the comedic and the tragic dimensions of Chekhov’s play. Micallef plays the role of the self-involved professor for comic relief, bringing a pathetic naïveté to the character.
Henshall’s despair and desperation drip off him in every scene. Yet others are sadly underutilised: Bock, Krape and Bridges, excellent in the roles, aren’t asked to engage deeply on the core themes of the play.
The set, by Dann Barber, is impressive. Dominated in the first act by bare-trunked, autumnal trees, it’s a reminder of the passing of the times of bounty. Paul Jackson’s divine lighting design at times calls to mind a flash of golden sun on leaves after a dark storm. And Barber’s thoughtful costumes do a lot of the work of establishing the pecking order and priorities of the characters.
For all its strong performances and elegant design, this is an adaptation that gathers the right ingredients but never quite brings Chekhov’s ache, humour and contradictions into a fully satisfying whole.
Uncle Vanya is presented by Melbourne Theatre Company and runs to 22 August at the Playhouse, Arts Centre Melbourne. 100 St Kilda Rd, Southbank Vic 3004.
Tickets: https://tickets.mtc.com.au/production/19786
Website: https://www.mtc.com.au/plays-and-tickets/whats-on/season-2026/uncle-vanya
Socials: https://www.instagram.com/melbtheatreco/
Photo credits: Pia Johnson
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