william-rotsel Review of Vanya on 42nd Street

Vanya on 42nd Street (1994)

Brilliant rendering of a brilliant play by a brilliant author

[10/10 · 3 February 2007]

If you are familiar with the play, you will marvel at the subtlety of the transition - from Monday-morning chatter about the weekend's activities among the cast members who have gathered for a rehearsal - to the play itself: Suddenly the dialog among the actors becomes identical with the lines in the play, the actors have, unbeknownst to viewers who haven't seen or read the play a few times, taken on their roles and begun the rehearsal/performance, a device which makes the action seem all the more authentically real and human. An interesting comment made to me by a Russian author(ess) whom I know: At the end when Sonya tells Uncle Vanya that in the bye and bye everything will be alright ("God will take pity on us...and we will rest"), in this Franco-American production Sonya seems to believe her own optimistically comforting words, whereas in a Russian production she - and Vanya - would know that any hope is only an illusion.