- 96 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub
About this book
Chekhov's late masterpiece examines human behaviour in all of its beautiful, terrible, laughable contradiction. Following his reimagining of Oresteia (Almeida / West End), Almeida Associate Director Robert Icke directs a new production of Chekhov's greatest play. Things your life could be:
(1) a farce.
(2) a tragedy.
(3) pointless.
(4) all of the above. Things you could do about it:
(1) keep living.
(2) stop living.
(3) stop someone else living.
(4) nothing. Even so, what has your life been worth?
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Please note we cannot support devices running on iOS 13 and Android 7 or earlier. Learn more about using the app.
Yes, you can access Uncle Vanya by Robert Icke,Anton Chekhov in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Literature & European Drama. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.
Information
THREE
Some time later. A room in the house. 12:45.
JOHN and SONYA. ELENA walks around, thinking.
JOHN | His eminence the Professor has deigned to express his sincere desire that we are all assembled in this particular room at precisely one o’ clock. Which is in fifteen minutes. He will speak and the world will listen. |
ELENA | Business, probably. |
JOHN | He doesn’t have any business outside writing, whining, being jealous – that’s it. |
SONYA | Uncle |
JOHN | All right, [I’m] sorry – (About ELENA.) – hobbies include walking around being bored, and being bored. Charming. She’s charming. |
ELENA | I’m bored with the sound of your voice. It never stops. |
It’s killing me, the boredom. I don’t know what to do. | |
SONYA | There are plenty of things to do. |
ELENA | Such as? |
SONYA | Work. It’s a farm. The crops. The animals. The fields. Teaching. Making people better. Isn’t that enough? Before you and Daddy were here, Uncle Johnny and I used to sell the produce at the market ourselves. |
ELENA | Yeah, I don’t know how to do that. It wouldn’t be interesting, anyway. Sounds like something from a fairy story. Teaching the poor. Healing the sick. Anyway, you can’t just wake up one day and start teaching. |
SONYA | You can – I don’t understand how you aren’t doing it already! Just try it and with a bit of time, you’ll get used to it. Don’t be bored. It’s contagious. |
ELENA | Contagious? |
SONYA | Look: Uncle Johnny does nothing. Well, he follows you round like a shadow, and I’ve left my work and I’m standing here talking to you. Doing nothing – and there’s so much to do! Doctor Michael used to visit us once a month, it was hard to get him to come at all, and now he comes here every day and he’s abandoned medicine and forests and everything. You’re a witch. |
JOHN | (To ELENA.) What’s wrong with you, anyway? Come on, think about it – you’re a mermaid, with mermaid’s blood rushing through your veins – let yourself go for once in your life, fall headfirst in love, dive deep down into the water and leave the Professor and the rest of us standing on the shore – |
ELENA | Leave me alone – it’s just cruel |
ELENA tries to leave, JOHN prevents it.
JOHN | I’m sorry, I’m sorry, come on, I didn’t mean [to upset you] – forgive me |
JOHN kisses her hand.
Peace perfect peace? | |
ELENA | It’s getting close to the limit, John. It really is. |
JOHN | As an olive branch, to engender harmony, I’ll bring you an armful of roses – picked them this morning – autumn roses, beautiful, mournful roses – |
JOHN goes.
SONYA | Autumn roses, beautiful, mournful roses – |
, | |
ELENA | That’s September already. And being here in winter, God, it’ll be [horrible] – |
, | |
Wher... |
Table of contents
- Cover
- Title Page
- Copyright
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Characters
- A note on the play
- A note on the text
- Act One
- Act Two
- Act Three
- Act Four
- By the same author