Shakespeare Downtown presents memorable "Vanya"

Shakespeare Downtown headed for the tip of Manhattan to present Anton Chekhov's "Uncle Vanya," translated and directed by the multi-talented Geoffrey Horne, at Castle Clinton, showing the script and story remain relevant and fresh. The result is a classic, yet contemporary, Chekhov play presented al fresco in Battery Park while Shakespeare in the Park further north tends to garner most of the attention in Central Park.

Pablo Toro, Scarlett Strasberg, Billie Andersson, and Evan Olson bring Chekhov to life at Castle Clinton. Photo: Amy Goossens

With a strategic composition, set, costume and production designer Amy Goossens keeps the stage both minimal and visually rich for a cast to balance the historic nature of the show with a more contemporary feel. Shakespeare in the Park has created a huge appetite for outdoor theater and Shakespeare Downtown has found a way to tap into this as well. Production Stage Manager Chantal Van Zyl has provided a creative balance that keeps the subtle shifts in props and action vibrant though the length of the performance.

In a post-pandemic era, proving that more than Shakespeare can find a place in parks, the seductive sun and relentless breeze of a summer evening cooperated with the staging. The samovar and cups were set on the white tablecloth inviting us, the audience, into the garden at the Serebryakov's estate. The family doctor, Mikhail Astrov (Juan Pablo Toro) unburdens himself of his despairing battle against the illnesses which plague the community as he opts for a little vodka instead of the tea offered by the housekeeper, Marina Timofeevna, (Chantal Van Zyl).

Healthcare is a truly universal issue and the battle to be well, fought by a doctor or a community, couldn’t be more topical. Chantal Van Zyl as Marina Timofeevna makes the comforting pronouncement “Man is forgetful, but God remembers” with an understated gravity that provides the counterbalance to the empty desperation which sustains the ethos of the play.

Billie Andersson and Scarlett Strasberg take shelter from the sun. Photo: Amy Goossens

For Uncle Vanya (Evan Olson ), his routine of managing the family estate has been grossly interrupted by the arrival of the self-indulgent Alexander Serebryakov (Timothy Nolan) and his serenely coquettish young wife Yelena (Billie Andersson). Nolan captures the peevish narcissism of an aging man clinging to notoriety. Andersson projects the shallow coldness of beauty without warmth or purpose.

Toro portrays a man with a purpose racing between unfulfilled romanticism and the realization that nature is being destroyed by our neglect and abuse. We are custodians of our own health, to an extent, but also the world around us. Olson delivers a full range of emotion as Uncle Vanya's realization of his own exploitation by Alexander, and the meaninglessness of his unappreciated sacrifices for the family's less than prosperous estate form the core of the drama. Class conflict is never far away in Chekhov and has many contemporary connotations today.

The matriarch, emotionally removed Maria Voynetskaya ( Elizabeth Ruf) and the effervescent social harmonizing Sonya Serebryakova (Scarlett Strasberg) bracket the hopelessness with the suppression of their own passions; academic and romantic. Ruf interprets the role as both prim and rebellious, as she shuts out the world in favor of pamphlets on women's rights. Strasberg's Sonya is deeply empathetic, fragility wrapped in an enduring core.

We are acutely aware of a vacuity before we know its cause. The country is vast and silent, as the voice of the hired man Yefim (Narque Cyriaque) calls the dog. Sound designer Carlos Ponce provided atmosphere-- the jingle of the traces of unseen horses, and crickets in the garden. The background notes of the newly popular Russian love song Black Eyes, which characterized the era , blends gracefully with the strumming of the guitar by family friend Ilya Ilyich Telegin (Karl Bateman). Music adds another dimension, providing atmosphere and filling the silence with emotion.

Each character maintains a alluring isolation, a profound loneliness of experience as they struggle for validation and actualization in a society in which they have lost their place. Chekhov's razor edge between comedy and tragedy brings a sense of the building tension in which Uncle Vanya ultimately demands validation.

It is easy to see Chekhov's work as encapsulating the tension and ennui of a society on the verge of an era, on the brink of radical change caught at a precipitous edge between the comforts of a life which has already past its prime and the frightful hope of the future. That was Russia as the 19^th century was turning into the 20^th. It is, in many ways a template of our own times. The questions raised here are enduring, our questions as much as Chekhov’s and one reason that Chekhov remains a contemporary playwright. Do hard work and sacrifice win against greed and narcissism? Can we save nature from destruction or is the Earth there to be exploited? Can one man fend off a plague? Can study and dedication change the world? These are all topical questions today.

In the voice of Doctor Astrov, Chekhov sounds the alarm. Astrov plants trees to preserve the forests for the future. We are their future and it is a pleasure and a privilege to watch voices in the past echo on such a beautiful stage today, keeping Chekhov in our thoughts as the questions that preoccupied him remain very much on many minds today.