This production of Chekhov's Uncle Vanya is brought to the stage by the award-winning Maly Drama Theatre (founded in Leningrad in 1944) and their director Lev Dodin. The performance is in Russian with surtitles, so it's probably about as close to the original as an English audience could hope for.

The themes in the play of love, loss and the pointlessness of life are prominent here as they are in many of Chekhov's plays, but this one somehow seems more potent in its tragedy. The play begins with the return of Professor Serebryakov and his second wife, Elena, from the city to their country estate. The Professor inherited the estate after the death of his first wife (Vanya's sister), and has since been living off the income of the estate. Vanya, his mother and niece, Sonya, have worked tirelessly to keep the estate running and produce enough money to keep the academic professor and his new wife in riches.

The tragedy in the play is Uncle Vanya's realisation that the Professor, once a respected arts writer, is actually clueless about his academic subject and has been draining all the family's financial resources without even earning them any credence through his writing. This brings into question the value of all their years of work to support him. Vanya starts to see his life as something that has just slipped away meaninglessly, and blames the professor for what might have been.

The play explores loss; the Professor mourns his youth, Sonya mourns her unrequited love for Doctor Astrov, Uncle Vanya mourns his unrequited love for Elena alongside his meaningless life; whilst Elena is just bored. As Vanya dreams about the life he never had - increasingly turning to the dream rather than the reality - life becomes increasingly painful. Meanwhile, Sonya turns to religion to give her hope and comfort to compensate for the sadness of her everyday life. The chasm between what is and what might have been pushes Vanya to the brink of madness.

The story serves as an assault on the idle upper classes in czarist Russia, portraying the social divide through the contrast between the lazy professor and his 'bored' new wife, and the hardworking family of his previous wife. There are humorous moments, many provided by Doctor Astrov (played by the charismatic Petr Semak), whose visits to the house become more and more frequent as his passion for the beautiful Elena grows. Particularly enjoyable is his drunken singing, which serves as a break from the tragedy. Uncle Vanya, played by Sergey Kuryshev, also has his moments. Upon the discovery of the Astrov and Elena kissing, he is rooted to the spot in shock and hides his face behind the bunch of flowers he has brought for her. This subtlety is a feature of the performance - the setting, the atmosphere and the graceful movement of the actors around the stage provides a powerful background to the action without the need for showy scenery or over-acting.

The tempo of the play really picks up in the second half, where tragedy is predominant. After events come to a head, things look pretty bleak; but the audience is treated to a potent monologue from Sonya, probably the most able of all the characters to accept the daily grind of life through her strength of hope and faith in the afterlife. This at least provides a glimmer of light for the audience to take away with them.

This is a strong, deeply affecting performance, with exceptional acting - catch it while you can.

Chloe Anderson, 15.06.2005