Uncle Vanya

by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (Author), Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (Author), Pam Gems (Translator)

• Used

  Paperback
  1992

  $10.93

  A translation of the play by the Russian writer who also wrote The Cherry Orchard, The Seagull and The Three Sisters. The translator wrote her version in collaboration with the cast of the 1992 National Theatre production of Uncle Vanya, which includes Ian McKellen and Antony Sher.

• Used

  Paperback
  1998

  $7.50

  David Lan's new version of one of Chekhov's greatest plays, was commissioned for a co-production between the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Young Vic. Directed by Katie Mitchell, it premiered at the Young Vic, London, in March 1998, a century after its Uncle Vanya is the first of Chekhov's three great masterpieces. Set on a remote farm in the Ukraine, it tells of two obsessive love affairs that lead nowhere, and a flirtation that brings disaster. Written towards the end of the 1890s, it casts a diamond-hard glance towards our century. A notably sharp, bright translation (The Times)

• New

  Paperback
  1987

  $16.13

  Along with Three Sisters and The Cherry Orchard, Uncle Vanya is credited as one of Chekhov's masterpieces and a significant precursor of modern drama. Set on a country estate in late nineteenth century Russia, Uncle Vanya is in part a study of the enervation of Russian middle-class provincial life. The major dynamics between the characters themselves are centred on two obsessive love affairs that lead nowhere and a flirtation that brings disaster. Mixing the tragic and the absurd and dealing with a form that allows for ambiguity and contradiction, Uncle Vanya has been deemed the first modernist play . (David Lan)