Theatre | The 10 Selected Productions
Onkel Wanja (Uncle Vanja)
By Anton Chekhov
German translation by Werner Buhss
Bayerisches Staatsschauspiel München / Residenz Theater
Premiere Munich 26 June 2003
Uncle Vanya © Thomas Dashuber
Barbara Frey has taken Chekhov really, really seriously: Chekhov always maintained that he wrote “humorous plays” and protested with vehemence against atmospheric self-indulgence on the stage, against false sentimentality and indistinct moroseness. “Uncle Vanya” from Munich is of quite a different calibre. It has something bewitchingly reckless, a playful irony. The director has relieved the characters of their black ribbons of mourning, released them from the heaviness of event, time and tears without betraying them, the stories of their lives and their suffering, which in conventional Chekhov productions forces them oppressively towards poignant ostentation.
Gerhard Jörder
Cast
Directed by – Barbara Frey
Stage and Costume Design – Bettina Meyer
Video – Bert Zander
Lighting Design – Falk Hampel
Dramaturgy – Laura Olivi
Aleksandr Vladimirovich Serebryakov, emeritus professor – Thomas Holtzmann
Yelena Andreyevna Serebryakova, his wife – Sunnyi Melles
Sofia Alexandrovna Serebryakova (Sonya), his daughter from first marriage – Anna Schudt
Maria Vasilyevna Voynitskya, widow of a privy counciller, mother of the professor's first wife – Elisabeth Rath
Ivan Petrovich Voynitsky, her sonn – Rainer Bock
Mikhail Lvovich Astrov, doctor – Stefan Hunstein
Ilya Ilych Telegin, impoverished landowner – Helmut Stange
Marina, the old family nanny, called auntie – Helga Grimme