Anton Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya is a revision of one of his prior works, titled The Wood Demon, which depicts a few months in the life of the Serebryakov family at their country estate. The play is essentially marked by the visit of an elderly professor, Aleksandr Serebryakov, and his much younger wife, Helena, to the rural estate that finances their urban lifestyle. While there is not exactly a narrative arch, the plot moves forward by way of exploring the relationships between the characters, which provide numerous moments of tension and conflict. Both Vanya and his friend, Doctor Astrov, fall under the spell of Helena, while Sonia – the professor’s daughter from his first marriage – develops unrequited feelings for Dr. Astrov. Lacking a real narrative structure, one can say that Vanya’s hatred towards the Professor, abruptly intensified in Act III when Serebryakov brings forth the idea of selling the estate – Vanya’s and Sonia’s home – as a solution for their financial problems, and which culminates in a missed attempt at shooting him at point-blank is more or less the climax of the negotiation of conflicts between characters.
Uncle Vanya in undeniably charged with realism. It encompasses the monotony, the boredom and the static aspect of everyday life in a seemingly effortless manner and without coming off as dull. In fact, it is precisely because of its realistic nature that the audience can identify with the struggles of the characters to find meaning in their lives. It is also important to mention the historical context in which the play was written – the Industrial Revolution and the Russian Revolution – because it provides the motive for Chekhov’s emphasis on stasis and society’s pressure on reconciling work and leisure. We hear almost, if not all of the characters complain about being bored and feeling restless, yet none of them break the cycle of work and inaction. Vanya himself is the perfect example in this sense: a man, in his older age, who suddenly realizes that he did not achieve anything in his life, and yet refuses to do anything about it but complain about how he wasted his potential, thus fueling his own inner turmoil and his disappointment with himself. Similarly, Helena complains about her existential ennui and the lack of love in her marriage, but refuses to start working for the simple reason that she has no knowledge of it, nor any interest. Dr. Astrov himself deals with the balance between action and inaction, but he seems to be the only who fights to break the cycle. He is a cartographer who researches the damaging effects of human activity on forests. Although he presents interesting facts, his long lectures come to bore his audience, thus perpetuating the central theme of the play. What is interesting to note though is the potential of a static state to generate action. This is how Vanya’s two major seemingly climactic actions (his attempt to kill Serebryakov and his suicide attempt) are born, even though in the end they fail and come to be viewed as anticlimactic from the broader perspective of the entire play, again signaling the uneventfulness of life.
Louis Malle beautifully transposes Chekhov’s work in Uncle Vanya on 42nd Street, capturing its essence – the tediousness of life. Although it does not fall under the canon of realism, because it does not respect the setting of the play, nor the costumes of the characters (which should be reminiscent of late 19th century Russia), the general atmosphere of the play is recreated through the performance of the actors. What struck me when I was watching the film was the abundance of Brechtian elements, such as the constant reminder that what we are watching is a play through the emphasis put on the distinction between characters and actors, as well as the breaks between the acts, when actors were mingling and eating, or the conversations that the director has with both the actors and the audience. We are reminded again and again that we are not in Russia, but in New York City, in an abandoned theater, where a group of actors are staging Chekhov’s work, and the moment that will forever persist in my memory is when the audience can clearly see a mug trademarked with the “I ❤ NY” sign. It was as if during the interpretation of each of the four acts we were transposed in the world of the play, forgetting that we are in fact watching a film, only to be reminded by that during the transitions and also when Helena is delivering a monologue over voiceover.
Although the play can come off as dull when we are reading it, seeing it performed emphasizes Chekhov’s genius. He constructed life as is, without trying to make it appear eventful or full of interesting moments, accentuating the long moments of inaction and boredom that we are all subject to. In shifting the emphasis from narrative to character, Chekhov achieves a greater connection with the spectators, because everything suddenly becomes more relatable.
Citation:
Chekhov, Anton. Uncle Vanya. Trans. Diadia Vania. Oxford, MS: Project Gutenberg, 1999. Web.
Vanya on 42nd Street. Dir. Louis Malle. Perf. Julianne Moore and Wallace Shawn. Sony Pictures Classic, 1994. DVD.
Alexandru Thinks Theater 