Coquitlam Public Library

Uncle Vanya

eng

videorecording

Uncle Vanya

956908124

Originally produced by British Home Entertainment in 1962

106

In the garden of a country house in 1890?s Russia, are gathered a strange yet somehow familiar set of people. An old lady (Maman) who constantly has her head buried in a literary essay or pamphlet; her son (Uncle Vanya), middle aged, restless, sensitive ? also an intellectual; a doctor (Astrov) who is bored with his work, like Vanya feels in a rut, but has developed a romantic passion for forestry; a quiet girl (Sonya) withering on the vine with hopeless resignation; a strange hanger-on (Waffles) who entertains with a little guitar music and any amount of hero worship; a retired professor of literature (and Sonya?s father by his first marriage), wallowing in delusions about his talent and eminence in his world of literature, who, with his second, much younger, wife (Ilyena) exert a charismatic influence over the other members of the household; an ancient servant (nurse) whose world stretches as far as the samovar and broom cupboard but who paints the scene with rustic homilies.. The atmosphere is at once sultry and languorous with sighs and yawns and self-reproaches, vodka, endless tea and endless discussion. Ilyena acts as the catalyst for disturbing this scene, with Vanya?s undisguised rose tinted passion contrasting with Astrov?s more earthy dalliance in the same direction. The merry-go-round is completed by Sonya?s love for Astrov failing to bring him back to emotional life. An outrageous suggestion by the professor to underpin his, but no one else?s, future financial security, brings an explosive charge to the oppressive atmosphere, with Vanya?s attempt at assassination failing - much like the rest of his life. The professor and his, now loyal, wife, return to the metropolis, and Astrov to his beloved forest plantation. The household routine reasserts itself, and life passes on by..

live action