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Uncle Vanya

Published Wednesday 4 November 2009 at 11:40 by Jeremy Brien

The apron at the Theatre Royal has been specially extended to its original Georgian shape for this exemplary co-production by the Bristol Old Vic and Shakespeare at the Tobacco Factory of Chekhov’s masterful mix of humour and sadness, brimming over with the realities of life.

It is a symbolic move on several fronts. First, it reflects the enviable reputation that SATTF has painstakingly built for its intimate, audience-friendly approach to the classics that in the last couple of years, with the BOV in not so animated suspension, has elevated it to the role of the only major producing house in the city. Again, the invitation to move from the Tobacco Factory to King Street, albeit temporarily, underscores the BOV’s determination to involve much wider Bristol theatrical elements in its future programming.

SATTF artistic director Andrew Hilton has gathered some familiar Tobacco Factory faces around him and although he has a larger canvas than usual on which to etch Chekhov’s themes of deep felt unhappiness and illusions being shattered, he does not sacrifice his intimate chamber style one iota. Simon Armstrong and Daisy Douglas skilfully capture the emotional ache at the centre of the two principal characters - the melancholy yet volatile Vanya and his equally lovelorn niece Sonya. Neither is in any danger of losing our sympathy, unlike Ian Barritt’s self-centred Professor Serebryakov or Alys Thomas’s enigmatic and manipulative Yelena. There is even a modern ecological slant in Paul Currier’s half-opportunistic, half-idealistic Doctor Astrov.

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