Thursday, January 06, 2011

Play review – “Uncle Vanya” by Anton Chekov via Andrew Upton (STC production Nov 5 2010)

Names, names, names – Cate Blanchett, Hugo Weaving, Richard Roxburgh, John Bell, Jackie Weaver, Sandy Gore, etc. No one gives a bad performance but honestly you’d hope not. It’s a not-very-good adaptation (what year is it set in? I could never get a fix) and wasn’t very well directed. Too many of the cast mugged and did all sorts of business to get laughs. Someone once told me the problems with Chekov productions was either they’d be played for drama and they were never dramatic enough or done as comedies and they were never funny enough; this one definitely falls into the latter box. Still, it was exciting to see all those famous people on stage.

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