Boomerang Theatre Company's UNCLE VANYA

Fall is the season for Vanya. Chekov's wistful and comic meditation on deterioration mirrors the cold and imperceptibly slow turn of the seasons until the doctor Astrov muses, "Why am I old?" as if it had been June and when he looked out the window there was snow on the ground.

Although Boomerang Theatre Company's production finds little surprise in the multi-layered work, it manages to capture the play's directionless sense of urgency. The characters fervently need to do something, though they don't know what. Ultimately, the production follows suit - the actors know that something needs to be done to lift the text off the page but few of Vanya's moments are elevated above notes of dejection and longing.

Set in the turn of the century Russian countryside, Uncle Vanya captures the idle and by contrast, the toil of country life. The professor (Ed Schultz) and his young wife Yelena (Lauren Kelston) descend upon the estate owned by the family of his dead wife - namely, his daughter Sonya and his brother-in-law, Vanya played by James Leach. The once hard-working household comes to a stand still to meet the needs of the revered professor and his beguiling new wife. Time passes and the characters are left to wonder how much of their lives have really been wasted.

This Uncle Vanya finds purity in unexpected places. Eve Udesky's Sonya exudes a quiet optimism. We are aware that her hopes will be dashed or that things will not quite work out for Sonya (as they so rarely do for Chekov's characters) yet her naivete retains its freshness - in fact, she does not seem naive at all. So much so, that when she shows the slightest hint of disappointment, we take notice, and when she says to Vanya, "We will rest," we believe her.

Too often the production's staging allows the characters to hide from their problems in the few recesses of the set. Vanya huddles downstage behind the couch and Sonya positions herself behind the table, her back to the audience, facing out the window. But an exhilarating moment comes when the characters have nowhere to go. Vanya, Astrov and Yelena stand trapped in the middle of the room after a comprising and climactic moment. The tension is palpable. "There's only one thing," Astrov says when there is nothing else to say. "The days are growing shorter."

Uncle Vanya, directed by Philip Emeott, runs through October 10 at the Connelly Theatre.

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