Uncle Vanya

And then on the other side of the spectrum, like, there are roles that I've played that have gone so deep and sort of, like, opened up a part of my heart.

And I played Sonya in Uncle Vanya when I was 20 years old in a school production, and, like, I think I just...

There's, like, a part of me that I think as a younger person was, like, afraid to be perceived as ugly, afraid to be perceived as, like, not worth looking at.

Like, I felt like a lot of power w- could be derived from, like, kind of throwing my weight around, like, as a-

Yeah

... of Vanya, this reimagining of Uncle Vanya, where you're playing all eight speaking parts-

Yeah.

Yeah

No, actually.

So all of the characters are very loosely based on the archetypes of characters from really famous old play called Uncle Vanya by Anton Chekhov.

And actually a bunch of the premises as well, because in Uncle Vanya, it's their family estate that's being sold out from underneath them after they worked years and years and toiled for what is the question that kind of gets asked throughout the play.

So for us, we've always loved this play, like since undergrad.

One of our first times working together as director and actor was on a scene from Uncle Vanya.

And for me, I had like this really profound feeling acting moment while doing it and it was like the first time that I fully kind of felt present in a role and really felt dropped into the thing that all of my teachers have been talking about of like

when

Everyone was just really positive, problem solving, creative.

Does a man sleep? Does he forget when he calls his sleep sommeil des brutes? But how can he change the tempestuous protests with which the tedious story is filled? The need to pour forth the pent-up indignation soon begin to appear useless and even insulting to human dignity.

Chekhov's last rebellious work is Uncle Vanya.

Like the old professor and like Ivanov, Uncle Vanya raises the alarm and makes an incredible pother about his ruined life.

He too, in a voice not his own, fills the stage with cries.

Life is over.

Then begins a Chekhov history, quote, he cannot reconcile himself, neither can he refuse so to reconcile himself.

He can only weep and beat his head against the wall.

Uncle Vanya does it openly before men's eyes.

...

in Uncle Vanya.

I was 23.

[laughs]

The larch sometimes stands in for the Siberian wilderness.

And then there's Chekhov with Uncle Vanya.

"Russian forests crash down under the ax.

Billions of trees are dying.

I hope I can remember the name.

Uncle Vanya is the name of the play.

The Chekhov play.

Yeah, the Chekhov play.

One second.

Some of the later scenes we see them doing the play, there is a gun.

Is that actually Chekhov's gun? Is that THE Chekhov's gun? Is Uncle Vanya the play

where Chekhov's gun comes from? You know, I took a...

Yeah, I was going to say The Seagull, yeah.

As we were playing through it, I was like, Christ, the comparisons between Thomas and the character in The Seagull called Konstantin Treplev as well as in The Seagull... constantine is very envious and very jealous of his mother's career and is always looking for her approval because she's a famous actress whereas in treading his call it's his father and he is very much in love with an actress someone who lives nearby called nina who in this game is leah and i've not seen any other conversations around that but like immediately and it's very kind of you know linked with what you and me have done in a past life with our you know drama school and acting etc and Chekhov is very hit and miss there are some Chekhov plays that I love and The Seagull was probably one of my favourite plays Some of them not so much like Three Sisters or Uncle Vanya.

But yeah, I really appreciated that that was in there because, like I say, The Seagull is one of my favourite plays and I've been in versions of it and I've been in adaptations of The Seagull.

and the fact that i've seen something similar to the story of the seagull in some way in a game i just really appreciated there's someone who appreciates yeah and someone that has that background

So I'll give you an example of mine.

I went to see a play on Broadway with a friend, uh, a Chekhov play, which was Andrew Scott performing all the roles in Uncle Vanya.

I love Chekhov.

I adore Andrew Scott.

You know, for me to find my Chekhov person, even my Chekhov people don't got that.

Whenever it started to say, "Oh, Sherry, you're such an interesting creature.

You're a most fascinating creature," I mean, whenever it started to tell me I was, like, a fascinating creature and that it's never spoken to anybody about Chekhov, was brilliant as I wa- As soon as it wooed me, I knew to sort of, you know, ugh, let's lose that and get back to the scene of, you know, Moscow Art Theater, you know? For everything you do with, with this chatbot, you say, "What's the end game?" The end game for me with Uncle Vanya is I saw the play again, and I, I brought my, uh, my daughter.

[laughs] You know, I, I brought more friends.