This Yelena is clearly a woman on the verge of a nervous breakdown.ĭespair and destruction. Yet she is chained by marriage to a gouty Professor whose very touch causes her to shiver with revulsion. Her beauty hypnotises both Vanya and the climate-conscious doctor, Astrov. Elisaveta Boyarskaya’s magnetic Yelena – the pivotal performance of the evening – is both destructive and herself destroyed. Played against a curved wooden wall – sadly, the current strikes deprived us of the forest that was part of the design when the show premiered in Moscow – the production leaves us in no doubt about the tangible despair of Chekhov’s people. Meanwhile, Channel-hoppers can still catch Stéphane Braunschweig’s extraordinary production – played in Russian with French and, on certain dates, English surtitles – at the Odeon, Paris.īraunschweig, who has directed all the major Chekhov plays, is explicit about why he was drawn to Uncle Vanya: he sees the characters’ destruction of each other as a “mini ecosystem” that symbolises the wilful ruination of nature. Ian Rickson’s production of Conor McPherson’s new version opens this week at London’s Harold Pinter theatre. That may explain why it is on view in two theatrical capitals. It may not have the symphonic richness of Three Sisters or The Cherry Orchard but it confronts personal failure unflinchingly and, because of its awareness of climate crisis, currently seems the most topical.

But my own personal favourite is Uncle Vanya. W hich is Chekhov’s greatest play? It tends to be the one you’ve seen most recently.

Chekhov uncle vanya