Uncle Vanya
Anton Chekhov
Scenes of Life in the Country
At the turn of the last century…
In the final days of Czarist Russia…
On an old country estate in decline…
All is not well…
An intellectual will angrily reject his beliefs of the Past,
A beautiful young wife will struggle against her passions of the Present,
An idealistic doctor will attempt to change the path to the Future,
And a lonely young woman shall seek comfort through faith in the After-Life.
In a time of economic decay, imminent revolution and social unrest…
Vast forests have been leveled and each tree is threatened by the axe…
As a civilization teeters on the brink of oblivion…
A change is about to take place…
An impoverished gentleman will find solace, reteating from his troubles though Music.
A feminist free-thinker will withdraw from life around her, escaping into Books.
An aging university professor will seek Immortality through writing about Art.
And an old governess, heart filled with compassion, shall pray for mercy from God.
More than one hundred years ago…
In another country…
In a fragile world of the past…
A fragile world so like our own…
Eight extraordinary characters are brought together.
Eight people searching for meaning, for happiness, for love.
Passionate in their convictions, these wonderful characters are funny, flawed, wise and foolish…
They speak to us, these ghosts from one hundred years ago,
Shadows moving about an old dilapidated house.
As Summer bleeds into Autumn and Autumn, in turn, fades…
Lives will be changed forever.
Some will be shattered like glass;
Others will be rejuvenated, will blossom and flourish.
All will be altered.
All will change.
Such is Life…
A Chekhov play.