‘Vània’, an actor alone in the rehearsal room
This was once the British director Sam Yates one imagined Uncle Vania large-format and hyper-technological, ideal for showing off at festivals. Among other innovations, he came up with the idea of putting lyrics to the thoughts of the characters: an inner voice that would reach the audience through headphones. He looked for several prestigious authors to write these new fragments, among them Simon Stephens. It also had a protagonist: Andrew Scott. The project progresses and one day Yates and Stephens invite Scott to a reading of the text of Chekhov to convince him to accept the role. They sit at a table, take out the papers and start reading and, as in the version of David Mamet for the film of Louis Malle Go on 42nd Streetbased on the scenic proposal ofAndrew Gregorythe miracle happens.
That day they got up from the table with a 180 degree turn in the conception of the project: vania it will be a monologue. A single actor to play all the characters in the play, dressed in street clothes, as in a rehearsal, in a contemporary setting, without any reference to the author’s Russia. Anglo-Saxon names in the original production of the National Theatre of London, released in 2023 al Duke of York’s Theatre. A success, despite the fact that the proposal departs from the usual West End productions, more akin to Chekhov adaptations such as vanya of Christopher Hamptonand closer to the heterodoxy of off companies like the New Yorker The Wooster Group.
For Stephens it will be the third time he has faced a work by Chekhov and, as in the previous two (The cherry orcharddirected by Katie Mitchelli the seagullof Sean Holmes), his approach to the classic is not entirely orthodox, in response to the particularities of both directions. But in vaniaStephens adapts—or rather, synthesizes—the text from a much more personal perspective. As he himself explains in an interview: “This monologue brings together in one show three of the elements that are part of the dramaturgical concerns that motivate me the most: the search for naturalism in the theatre, the fascination for the aesthetics of the rehearsal room and Chekhov”.
An exercise in virtuosity that also extends to the acting effort of the performer who takes on the challenge. Scott’s equivalent at the Romea Theater is Joel Johnwhich leaves its comfort zone —where it has moved in recent years with shows like Escape Room— to accept a professional adventure that he might not have faced since the role of the monster of Frankenstein in the 2018 National Theater production, directed by Carme Portaceli. In vaniadirects it Nelson ValenteArgentinian director who for some time has turned Barcelona into one of his professional places, with recent titles such as Sylvia, diamond dust or the latest production with Theater T, I won’t cry today.
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