Review: Uncle Vanya at the Sydney Theatre Company

Last night was an outing to see Uncle Vanya at the Sydney Theatre Company. It's a star-studded production, featuring Cate Blanchett, Hugo Weaving, John Bell, Jacki Weaver and Richard Roxburgh. I've seen the play once or twice before so while I'm hardly familiar with it, I had a sense of how things were going to play out.



The direction emphasises humour and physicality over the more elegaic aspects of Chekhov's writing. This generally works thanks to Andrew Upton's ocker translation, although the crucial shooting scene is overplayed and seems to come from nowhere.

Blanchett's Yelena also seems to generally take things a notch too far, and is somewhat ungenerous in taking the limelight from other actors at times. To be fair, the character is supposed not to fit in to the milieu and seem a little OTT, and the effect is exacerbated by a starstruck crowd guffawing at every minor bit of business.

Roxburgh's ramshackle Vanya and Weaving's cynical doctor work well, but the real star for me is Hayley McElhinney as the naive young Sonya who gets some big laughs while maintaining a painful vulnerability.

That sounds a bit negative: it's a great play done well, and I did enjoy myself.

A memorable moment from the evening for me was Ross accidentally toppling a full glass of red wine all over me at the cafe beforehand. I enjoyed the play with a slightly moist groin, smelling faintly of blackberries and tannins.