Andrew Scott is captivating in radical adaptation of Vanya – review
Andrew Scott is one of our favourite actors – he may be best-known for his TV work (Fleabag, Sherlock) but we adore seeing him on-stage.
We caught him a few years ago on the West End in Hamlet and this week we had the pleasure of seeing him again in Vanya, a radical one-person adaptation of Anton Chekhov’s masterpiece Uncle Vanya.
It’s a bold re-telling, now set on a farm in Ireland, in a more modern (although perhaps not quite present day) setting, and all the characters’ names have been Anglicised, with our protagonist Vanya becoming Ivan.
For all the changes, however, it’s still Chekhov’s tragically comic play at its heart. For those unfamiliar, Vanya features eight characters – nine if we include Vanya’s deceased mother, who of course has no lines, but her presence is acutely felt throughout the play – so choosing to stage this as a one-person show is a bold decision.
