Theatre review: Uncle Vanya

Uncle Vanya is Anya Reiss' third Chekhov adaptation with Russell Bolam at the helm, and hopefully that'll let her view it as a trilogy and return to her own original plays, which in the past have been rather good. (Although here's a fun game, see if you can spot the bit on the website where it actually says this was written by Anton Chekhov. It's there somewhere. Like Wally.) This is one of the Chekhov plays I've seen less often, and I've yet to see a production that convinced me of its greatness. Spoiler alert, but this production didn't either. John Hannah plays the titular Vanya, who's spent most of his life taking care of the farm owned by his late sister, and now passed on to her widower, the elderly academic Serebryakov (Jack Shepherd.) The latter has now retired and come back to the farm with his new young wife Yelena (Rebecca Night,) where he's not entirely welcome.

Theatre review: In Lambeth

Getting naked on stage can't be many actors' favourite thing, although at least on a night as warm as tonight I guess they can feel confident they're the most comfortable people in the room. The characters, in any case, are entirely relaxed in their own skins as the poet and illustrator William Blake (Tom Mothersdale) and his wife Catherine (Melody Grove) spend an evening in their garden, sitting up a tree as he reads to her from Paradise Lost. The Blakes may be recreating the Garden of Eden but outside their walls things are less peaceful: The American Revolution has ended, the French Revolution is in full swing, and restless London crowds fear similar scenes in England. Their bogeyman is Thomas Payne (Christopher Hunter,) author of Rights of Man, who is currently fleeing an angry mob. Knowing that Blake lives nearby, and wanting to meet him, Payne escapes into the garden.

Theatre review: Home

Last year Amelia Sears revived the explosive Brimstone and Treacle at the Arcola's Studio 2 and now she returns there (although the venue itself has dropped down a level to the basement since she was last there) for something much more contemplative, David Storey's gently absurdist Home. It's some period after the Second World war, and two elderly men meet in a garden. Harry (Jack Shepherd) and Jack (Paul Copley) peruse the newspaper, reminisce about their lives and discuss great figures from British history to while away an autumn morning. They later meet combative Marjorie (Tessa Peake-Jones) and her friend Kathleen (Linda Broughton,) who can find a smutty double entendre in anything. As they think about going off to lunch, they start to drop hints about exactly what kind of place this peaceful garden is in the middle of: They're not quite free to come and go as they please, there's a lot of doctors around, and Kathleen isn't allowed a belt or shoelaces. The arrival of Joseph Arkley's Alfred, a clearly disturbed young man who believes himself to be a wrestler and keeps stealing the garden furniture only goes to confirm what kind of environment we're in.