Writer: Brian Friel’s Adaption of Chekhov
Director: Cathal Cleary
Uncle Vanya, not exactly a play filled with Christmas cheer, was chosen as this year’s classic to be presented in Smock Alley.
Uncle Vanya is a timeless play about dysfunctional relationships and people unable to take action in their own lives. It is difficult to truly enjoy the content whatsoever, so miserable and dejected a cast of characters as they are. This is why the production requires so much from both the actors and the creative team behind it.
It begins with the cast walking onto the stage with a solemn gravity that gives the audience a sense of foreboding, the existential dread to come is palpable. This is a choice often made with Chekhov and it arguably needs a rethink, as it is tired and gives a sense that the production is being taken too seriously by the creators.
The actors in this production live up to their end of the bargain. Risteard Cooper manages to inject a great deal of life into this tragicomedy. It feels as though we walk through Vanya’s life with him, the rage and misery oozing out of him so naturally. His juvenile declarations of admiration for Yelena are cringe-inducing in their plausibility. There was a sense that had the direction been more innovative, we could have seen a more powerful and energetic performance that would have done Cooper’s talent justice.
Nick Dunning can also be credited with bringing vigour to this production as Alexandr, the arrogant art scholar, as he bounds across the stage. Catherine Byrne’s Maria, Vanya’s mother, gave a notable performance – she commands attention expertly as a powerful force on stage, even when slumped on a chair.
Cathal Cleary’s directorial decisions were a bit tired, though inevitably the cast’s sitting around dejectedly is part and parcel of the ennui that Chekov’s characters suffer in this play; it could’ve done with some new ideas. A play such as this, filled with navel-gazing and lengthy conversations, requires innovation on the part of the director. This production would have benefitted from an injection of energy, shifting up the physical dynamics between characters perhaps, and definitely moving away from the actors lying down on stage.
In combination with the music which, although beautifully composed by Martha Knight in collaboration with HK Ní Shioradáin, felt gothic and out of sync with the play and started to weigh on the audience. Poor Sonya’s proclamation that they must endure, endure felt like an apt summation of the play. Though there are beautiful elements within Chekov’s piece, and this production, it did feel like a feat of endurance.
Runs Until 20th Dec 2025.
