OUT OF TUNE WITH CHEKHOV

Chekhov’s quiet desperation is drowned out
by one very loud performance

What would a season of theater be without a Chekhov play? Or five? Following Red Theater’s excellent The Seagull in February, we now have a new iteration of Uncle Vanya from AstonRep Productions, currently on stage at The Edge Off-Broadway in Edgewater.

Things start out promisingly with Jeremiah Barr’s beautifully cluttered set. With its threadbare rugs, faded tapestries, and well-worn furniture, the impression of a household in decline sets in even before taking a seat. On a raised platform, a middle-aged man lies asleep in an armchair. To one side is a small worktable where the elderly nurse Marina (Liz Cloud) soon sits down with the visiting Dr. Astrov (Robert Tobin), who has been summoned to see an ailing guest but still finds time to chat with his dear old friend. Projected on the back wall of the theatre are faint images of foliage, which along with the lighting design (Jeremiah and Samantha Barr) and sparse piano (sound design by Melanie Thompson) do much to infuse the scene with a gentle melancholy, entirely apropos for the play to come.

One of the finest actor showcases written for the stage, Anton Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya is pretty much a theatre standard at this point. It’s performed around the world in countless languages and formats, inspiring innumerable variations on the original text as well as adaptations for film, radio, and opera. Set over two non-consecutive days, the play explores nothing less than the value of life itself through characters who no longer know how they got where they are—or where to go next. Some would say that it’s the finest play of Chekhov’s oeuvre and they would get no argument from me on that score.

On a rural country estate in fin de siècle Russia, the visit of Professor Serebryakov (Geoff Isaac) and his second—much younger—wife Yelena (Andi Muriel) has upset the natural order of things. The estate belonged to the Professor’s long-deceased first wife and is run by their daughter Sonia (Natalie Hurdle) and the wife’s brother Vanya (Rian Jairell). The Professor was once a noted academic but has since lost his stature and uses the estate primarily to fund his life in the city. A pompous man, he is also prone to hypochondria, necessitating frequent visits from Dr. Astrov, a neighboring landowner and friend of the family. Already deep in depression, Vanya is pushed into a midlife crisis by Serebryakov’s visit. He once venerated the Professor but now sees him as a mediocrity. The realization that he has spent the best years of his life toiling for a man he now loathes has broken him. Sonia, Astrov, Yelena, and, to some extent, Serebryakov are all in crisis as well, but it’s Vanya’s misery that provides the through line in the play.

I’ve always thought that Vanya was one of those plays that was impossible to fuck up. Every character is beautifully sketched out; it maintains a consistent tone throughout; and the plot—such as it is—moves with clear narrative purpose. It presents a group of people in a moment of crisis, and once resolved, returns to the status quo. Relatively straightforward. Or so one would think. But even a masterpiece like Uncle Vanya cannot survive a production in which multiple characters seem to have wandered in from different plays.

The most cohesive group—the supporting cast and Sonia—are excellent. Geoff Isaac is superb as Serebryakov, perfectly channeling the narcissistic smugness and self-importance of the character. Both Mike Rogalski (Telegin) and Liz Cloud (Nurse Marina) have small but striking moments, and Mary Mikva as Vanya’s mother may not have much to do, but flawlessly integrates into the ensemble every time she is on stage.

Natalie Hurdle’s Sonia is much more achingly young than I am accustomed to, and it gives the character an air of fragility that is heartbreaking to witness. Hurdle gives a beautiful—if a tad too internal—performance, which is especially remarkable given what she’s up against.

Robert Tobin is a fine Astrov, but I was a bit taken aback by his take on the character; this Astrov is far more angry and douche-y than despairing. His pursuit of Yelena also doesn’t ring true: it plays like something out of a rom-com rather than a last, desperate grasp at happiness, and his underdeveloped relationship with Sonia is almost non-existent.

This production uses as its script a rather artless adaptation by Liisa Repo-Martell that updates some of the language to more modern colloquial speech. The result is jarring dissonance, most evident in Andi Muriel’s Yelena—I was gratified to note that I wasn’t the only person who winced at “…give it to me straight.” She speaks with the cadences of someone from the year 2026, a mannerism that immediately sets her apart from almost everyone else on stage. Yelena is initially defined by her beauty and self-possession, with her intelligence and despair revealed only gradually. Here, however, she has none of that self-possession, coming across more like a disgruntled teenager. The effect is to invert her relationship with Sonia, who ends up feeling more like the parental figure than Yelena herself.

And if Yelena is from another play, Rian Jairell’s Vanya is from another planet. I have simply no idea what to make of this manic, hyperactive, and grating Vanya other than to say that it is almost spectacular in how misplaced it is. His inflections and body language are distractingly modern. The performance would be too big for the Goodman, never mind the small space of the Edge. It was almost painful to watch Tobin and Hurdle try to impose some sort of control in scenes involving Vanya. Muriel doesn’t even try. I found myself wanting to yell for director Derek Bertelsen to interrupt the proceedings and rein in his lead.

It is only in his final scene that Jairell settles down. His broken, defeated Vanya beautifully sets up one of the most famous closing monologues in dramatic theatre, delivered wonderfully by Hurdle. It is a stunning moment.

And a cruel reminder of what could have been.

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photos by Paul Goyette

Uncle Vanya
AstonRep Productions
The Edge Off-Broadway, 1133 W. Catalpa Ave. in Chicago
2 hours 30 minutes with intermission
Thurs–Sat at 7:30; Sun at 3
ends on July 5, 2026
for tickets ($25), call 312.620.4583 or visit AstonRep Productions

for more shows, visit Theatre in Chicago

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