Quote Of The Day

"Victory goes to the player who makes the next-to-last mistake - Chessmaster Savielly Grigorievitch Tartakower (1887-1956)"

Tuesday, March 01, 2016

Uncle Vanya...

Last Friday night Stuart and I went to see Robert Icke's production of Chekhov's Uncle Vanya at the Almeida Theatre in London's glitzy Islington.

We loved it - marred perhaps a little bit by a broken speaker that at one point seemed to want to drown out the prose and infuriate the audience. Still, stuff happens in live theatre.

The acting was top notch with special mention needing to go to Tobias Mezies as the Doctor who at one point stripped to his pants and drunkenly danced to Iggy Pop's Lust for Life. Oh, did I mention it was an updated Anglicised version?

The slowing rotating set literally gave us a fresh perspective on the action. Although when I say action I really mean inaction.

Lasting three and half hours with three intervals it was a long show. Granted Chekhov's masterpiece is in some ways a study of boredom so we perhaps shouldn't have been surprised but boy was it a slog at times.

Still, a bit of Chekhov is good for the soul. And it prepares Stuart perfectly for our three-Chekhov's-in-one-day marathon in July.

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