This Autumn, ANDREW SCOTT features in SIMON STEPHENS’ adaptation of Anton Chekhov’s masterpiece.
Directed by Sam Yates and designed by Rosanna Vize, VANYA opens at the Duke of York’s Theatre on 15 September running until 21 October.
__Assisted performances:__
Tuesday 3rd October – 7.00pm – BSL Interpreted
Thursday 5th October – 7.00pm – AD Performance
Scott is one of our greatest stage actors, and I am happy to say is on mesmerising form here, creating a whole emotional world for each role, and performances that are discrete enough to make you feel you are watching a quiet battle between the various wretched individuals wasting away on a country estate.
Admittedly, anyone unfamiliar with Chekhov’s text might be bemused. But everyone will recognise the cadences of longing, disappointment, grief and fragile hope. There’s wry humour, too – in Scott’s depiction of housekeeper Maureen, sucking on a cigarette and watching the family antics with weary indulgence; or wheedling Liam, the self-loathing hanger-on so insignificant to the others that they forget he’s there. Only the moment when Ivan softly sings the Jacques Brel standard If You Go Away feels like an unnecessary indulgence. This is theatre that gets under the skin: remarkable.
Videos