Review: VANYA, Duke Of York's Theatre

There are vanity projects, and then there are Vanity Projects. This is a Vanyaty Project of exquisite substance that reconfirms Andrew Scott is one of the finest performers of his generation. A production years in the making, Simon Stephens’s one-man adaptation of Anton Chekhov’s human tragedy Uncle Vanya has landed in the West End in the safe hands of Scott.

Helmed by director Sam Yates, who’s become a household name in his own right, it’s one hour and fifty minutes of sheer charisma. While it’s hard to imagine how a solo show of this kind could work, the execution is simply extraordinary.

The original story follows an elderly professor’s visit to his country estate accompanied by his younger and exceedingly glamorous wife. The locals, including Vanya (the professor’s late wife’s brother) and Astrov (the village doctor), are mesmerised by Yelena. Stifled passion, lust, resentment, and the profound stillness of rural isolation emerge from the rubble of classically dysfunctional relations. Stephens shakes things up, relocating the action (or lack thereof) to a potato farm in Ireland and turning the ageing professor into a filmmaker; he might have changed the names and modernised it slightly, but the skeleton of Chekhov’s plot remains the same.

Scott walks on stage, immediately playful and blasé. What ensues is a mesmerising masterclass in acting: he’s sensational. He quickly and precisely establishes the body language, accent, vocal modulation, and relating props of his different characters, spellbinding the audience. He strips back human emotion to lay its raw wounds bare, revealing family politics and internal tensions in their most basic nature.

A certain sophistication in the quality of his fadedness permeates the entire performance. Every aspect of his enthralling act is an atom in a perfectly, beautifully equalised bomb. There’s no doubt this is another career highlight for the incredible actor, who, bafflingly, is severely underestimated by mainstream media. Stephens writes a text of great subtle charm, defined by deeply sarcastic and deliciously sardonic cynicism.

It’s a riveting disassembly of Chekhov’s bleak worldview. The production is an entrancing pas-de-un, an exceptional solo challenge. Swift breaks of the fourth-wall ease the unconcealed performative slant of it all while Scott goes from blushing to irate, from severe to cheeky with unfaltering mental energy. Genuine hilarity goes hand-in-hand with arresting depth, generating an exceptionally eclectic and relentlessly engaging piece of theatre. 

The adapter turns it into a work of accessible relatability, injecting it with familiar dynamics, exasperating domestic drama, unrequited attraction, and a good dose of in-jokes - it’s like being at a regular family function. Yates places Scott in a liminal space designed by Rosanna Vize. It still displays all the shabbiness of a rehearsal room, with mismatched pieces of furniture, a door framed by plywood, and frankly random objects that grow to define the roles. The director forgoes any elaborate trickery, opting to entrust his actor with the creation of his own universe.

It’s easy to see why so many of the team are credited as co-creators. A show like this can only exist within the confines of pure trust and collaboration. It’s not a dialogue between the individual elements of the play, it’s a choir singing in gorgeous harmony. It’s become too popular to deem new West End openings the event of the year, but Vanya is, unquestionably, theatre at its best. Andrew Scott and the company must be eyeing a multitude of Olivier Awards.

Read our fascinating interview with director Sam Yates here.

VANYA runs at the Duke of York's Theatre until 21 October.

Photo credit: Marc Brenner