"A Mash-Up of Uncle Vanya by Anton Chekhov
and Romeo & Juliet by William Shakespeare"
Directed by Eric Tucker
Uncle Vanya adapted by Kimberly Pau
Experience two Classics in one sitting!
“As I began preparing to present the two plays in rep, I saw an opportunity to display their strong thematic similarities in a new way. Both plays showcase characters experiencing longing for love at different times in their lives. In Uncle Vanya, they are looking back saying how did I get here? In Romeo & Juliet, they are looking forward saying how can I get there? By watching these epic classics side-by-side within the same sitting, the audience can follow the doubling actors on a journey through a landscape where both worlds intersect, revealing the characters’ varying experiences of love, loss and longing at various milestones in their lives.”
– Eric Tucker, “America’s best classical stage director” (Wall Street Journal)
Bedlam, A.R.T./New York Theatres, 502 W. 53rd St. $59-$89, 833-423-3526, closes Oct. 28
Uncle Vanya
Hunter Theater Project, Frederick Loewe Theater, 695 Park Ave. $37, 866-811-4111, extended through Oct. 28
What Mr. Tucker has done to the two plays out of which “Uncle Romeo Vanya Juliet” has been cobbled together is easier to enjoy than it is to describe. Bits and pieces of “Vanya” and “Romeo” alternate without warning throughout the evening, juxtaposed in a way that is more than a little bit surrealistic but will nonetheless be readily intelligible to anyone familiar with the original plays (though I’m not sure how much sense it would make to those who aren’t). While the tone is often comic, on occasion wildly so, the underlying emotions are shatteringly serious: You never doubt that “Uncle Romeo Vanya Juliet” is all about the people that we never get to love, and the heartbreak that flows from that hard reality.
A strong actor who doubles here as a member of his own ensemble, Mr. Tucker always casts his productions with the same imaginative flair that he brings to their staging. That said, he’s brought off a coup by casting Zuzanna Szadkowski in the double role of Shakespeare’s Juliet and Chekhov’s Yelena. In a traditional “Romeo and Juliet,” Ms. Szadkowski would likely have been cast to play Juliet’s nurse. No doubt she’d do it well, too, but what she does here is flat-out astonishing: Her Juliet and Yelena, both of them sardonic and sexually knowing to a breathtaking degree, add up to the most thrilling performance by an actor previously unknown to me since Nina Arianda made her professional debut in the 2010 premiere of David Ives’s “Venus in Fur.” Anyone who still questions the expressive potential of nontraditional casting should rush to see her. Everything about this show is a delight, but I bet it’s Ms. Szadkowski whom you’ll remember longest.
Edmund Lewis and Zuzanna Szadkowsk in ‘Uncle Romeo Vanya Juliet’Photo: Ashley Garrett
No less striking in its purposefully undemonstrative way, though, is the New York premiere of Richard Nelson’s adaptation of “Uncle Vanya,” the auspicious inaugural production of Hunter College’s new Hunter Theater Project, in which professional productions are to be mounted under the aegis of the school’s drama department. This tightened-up version (it runs for 105 intermission-free minutes) is performed in modern dress and modern English (Mr. Nelson, who is also the director, translated the play in collaboration with Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky). The goal is to make “Vanya” more intimate and conversational, with 12 area mikes used to subtly boost the volume so that the actors can throw away their lines and still be heard throughout the house.
The results are successful in every way, so much so that I can wholeheartedly recommend this production to Chekhov novices and connoisseurs alike. “Vanya” is, after all, the quintessentially Russian story of a group of people who suddenly realize that they’ve frittered away their lives. Such terrible tales are best told in an understated way, and Mr. Nelson’s actors hardly ever raise their voices, whether figuratively or literally. Instead, they let you listen in as they watch the sun set on their bleak little world.
Alice Cannon, Yvonne Woods and Jay O. Sanders in ‘Uncle Vanya’Photo: Joan Marcus
What Ms. Szadkowski is to “Uncle Romeo Vanya Juliet,” Jay O. Sanders is to “Uncle Vanya.” One of our most accomplished character actors, Mr. Sanders gets to be the star of this show, scoring a decisive triumph in the title role. Not that his fellow cast members are other than consistently fine—far from it—but Mr. Sanders, as they say in the sugar trade, is superfine as Chekhov’s feckless, pitiable failure, a “shining light who never shone on anybody” and now knows that he never will. As for the translation, it’s unadorned, speakable and well suited to Mr. Nelson’s dramatic purposes, just as his low-key staging never gets between you and Chekhov. If you’re tired of hearing noisy shows rattle around in big Broadway houses, come to “Vanya” and bask in the quiet.
—Mr. Teachout, the Journal’s drama critic, is the author, most recently, of “Billy and Me.” Write to him at tteachout@wsj.com.
Eric Tucker and Zuzanna Szadkowski in “Uncle Romeo Vanya Juliet,” in which the actress plays Yelena and Juliet.Richard Termine for The New York Times
In the early 2000s, mash-ups had a cultural moment. Mad studio scientists would combine two (and sometimes more) completely different songs to create a new one. The trend peaked with Danger Mouse’s full-length “The Grey Album,” which fused the Beatles’ White Album with Jay-Z’s “The Black Album.”
More than a decade later, the Bedlam company is taking a stab at a theatrical mash-up with “Uncle Romeo Vanya Juliet,” which is stitched together from parts borrowed from Chekhov and Shakespeare — maybe the show should be credited to Chekspeare.
Concretely, this means that one moment, the five actors bear Russian names and knock back vodka shots; the very next, they are in another era and country, speaking in blank verse and thou’ing each other.
The “Uncle Vanya” elements have been tightened around the central quadrangle of unrequited love. Both Vanya (Edmund Lewis) and Astrov (Mr. Tucker, who also directed) pine for the sultry, married Yelena (Zuzanna Szadkowski). As for Sonya (Susannah Millonzi), she hopelessly loves Astrov, who has friend-zoned her.
Susannah Millonzi as Sonya, and Mr. Tucker as Astrov, who has friend-zoned her, in this mash-up.Richard Termine for The New York Times
Chekhov takes up much of “Uncle Romeo,” which is a blessing because as staged here, the parts from his play flow better than the ones from Shakespeare’s tragedy. Kimberly Pau’s loosely contemporary adaptation of “Uncle Vanya” (Yelena to her husband: “take an antacid”) and Mr. Tucker’s use of songs like “Avalon,” “MacArthur Park” and “Total Eclipse of the Heart,” lend the story a timeless sense of frustration and anomie.
The impression is compounded by the troupe’s unfussy acting style. Ms. Szadkowski’s earthy, approachable Yelena has a convincing melancholy underlining, and Ms. Millonzi handles Sonya, who can too easily be reduced to a pathetic sad sack, with sympathetic care.
Some of the juxtapositions have a humorous impact, as when Yelena, summoned by her husband (Randolph Curtis Rand), takes off while grumbling “O happy dagger” — Juliet’s comment as she is about to plunge said weapon into her heart.
Larger, structural changes are not entirely convincing. Sonya’s final speech to Vanya about embracing their life is juxtaposed with the bittersweet scene between Romeo (Mr. Lewis) and Juliet (Ms. Szadkowski) after their first night together. Mr. Tucker is trying to underline the connections between two vexed characters embracing their fate and two blissed-out youths on the brink of doom, but the splicing and recombining smothers the emotions.
The overall effect is not so much confusing as it is perplexing. It’s relatively easy to follow the intertwined narrative strands — though it helps considerably to be familiar with both plays — but it’s hard not to wonder what the point is.
Both classics deal with passionate, impossible love, and are peppered with stunning arias, but the mash-up’s seams show, and not in a good way. Sometimes, two great tastes just don’t taste great together.
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