Wednesday, February 05, 2003

By Richard E. Rauh

What about Chekhov's plays brings audiences back again and again to experience the blighted lives of lonely characters whose hopes seem dashed forever, who are often bored with life and too paralyzed to take action? Like Beckett's two tramps, Vladimir and Estragon, who owe much to Chekhov, they commonly wait for something to happen but end up right where they started.

We return to Chekhov to listen to the music of their interactions -- sometimes strident, sometimes melodic. Most importantly, we learn about their emotional world, its placid surface behavior and unconscious turmoil. We see the emotions they deny and fear. It is these same emotions that drive Chekhov's plays and take the place of plot and action.

	"Uncle Vanya" Where: University of Pittsburgh Repertory Theatre at Studio Theater, Cathedral of Learning basement, Oakland. When: 8 p.m. Wednesdays-Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays, through Feb. 16. Tickets: $12-$15; 412-624-PLAY.

This is certainly true of one of Chekhov's masterpieces, "Uncle Vanya," which the University of Pittsburgh Repertory Theatre is now presenting in a first-rate production in the Studio Theatre under Bruce McConachie's expert direction.

An added plus is Julie Ray's wonderful environmental set, making remarkable use of the Studio Theatre space, complete with a garden and three other rooms. And you get to have different perspectives on the set, as the audience is rotated to different sections after the intermission.

Chekhov's serio-comic story concerns retired Professor Serebrayakov and his young second wife, Yelena, returning to their home, run by Sonya and Vanya, his first wife's daughter and brother. Into this mix comes Astrov, a country doctor. Living there are Vanya's mother, Maria, and Telegin, a poor neighbor.

But life has passed them by. Sonya longs for Astrov, but he rebuffs her. Vanya and Astrov love Yelena, but she rejects them. By the time the professor and his wife leave, the emotional toll is heavy. Sonya and Vanya are left to find some way to live. And the clock keeps ticking.

McConachie has picked a generally good cast. Matthew Gaydos gives a splendid performance as Astrov, giving him just the right mix of the world-weary man who proclaims "he loves no one" and has only a "large mustache and little talent" and the idealist who comes alive when he talks of his ecological obsessions. Strong, too, is E. Bruce Hill's professor. Though he is a bit over the top at first, he later brings the right qualities of the pompous academic with a heart of stone.

Heather A. Peterson does nicely with the elusive Yelena, giving her qualities of boredom, aloofness and occasional passion. Though just 27, she reminds herself that in five years she will be old. Jennifer Juul is particularly strong as Sonya, making her at first a strong-willed optimist and later showing us Sonya's stoic side in the face of loss. She seems more real than anyone else in the play.

But Devin E. Malcolm's Vanya becomes too predictable and his childish outbursts too intense. Though Vanya is indeed excitable, Malcolm needs to pull the character back so we can see his frustrations.

Chekhov never falters in showing us the pleasure and pain of being human, and we never tire of watching. He is a master of the human comedy, and that is a resource we can't ever pass up.

Richard Rauh is a freelance critic for the Post-Gazette.

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