Theatre

Uncle Vanya is a Russian tragic comedy that was written by the celebrated playwright Anton Chekhov, published in early 1899. Its maiden performance was carried out in 1900 and was directed by Konstantin Stanislavski. Although Chekhovs works are not political in total, in Uncle Vanya, the playwright is instrumentally concerned with the social castes distinctions. Hence, artistically, he has managed to incorporate elements of realism and more so pays attention to how the communities live. This is evidenced by the fact that, some of the most memorable dialogues in this play are almost similar to real conversations, where folks talk at cross intentions or misconstrue one another. Konstantin Stanislavskys approach to dramatic text and theatrical production focuses on the growth and development of artistic reality on stage. This he achieved by training the actors to be the part of the play during the performance.

This system he helped to develop, he primarily designed it to be applied in diverse forms of drama, theatre, opera and production. Thus, in order to build a company of actors, he began developing his own studio where he taught and trained them in his unique system. His methods included concentration, tone, physical skills, sensation memory, surveillance, harmony, scrutiny, imagination and personalization. He afterward worked on The Method of Physical Actions. This was created at the Opera Dramatic Studio near the beginning of early 30s, and this approach worked like Emotion Memory (Napierkowski 254). The focal point was on the bodily actions rousing truthful sentiment, and involved creativeness and discussion. The focus stayed on getting the subconscious via the conscious. Reflecting on the performance of Uncle Vanya, it is paramount to realize that, Chekhov had vehemently attempted to avoid dramatic action.

However, Stanislavskys approach to this performance is incredible this is due to the fact that, as a director, he managed to introduce passion and liveliness in the production, note that, Uncle Vanya presents numerous challenges to the actors. Consider that, this play has the issue of comedy and the blind casting that Chekhov had injected into the play. But despite such a situation, Stanislavsky injected the notion of Method acting, basing this idea on the concept of achieving the emotional echelon and identification, he believed that the actors were feeling and behaving in a manner the characters are exposing individual feelings as per the performance involved.

Examining the English version of Uncle Vanya, there tend to exist a dramatic difference with the original Russian version, perhaps this can be attributed to the aspects of translations where some elements are somehow altered, but it is crucial to state that, the Russian version is more engaging, novel and captivating compared to the later. Looking at the content of the performance, it is impossible to get the mix right, this is allied to the fact that, most of Chekhovs works are defined as comedies but they up being tragedies.  Hence, this is one challenge that most actors and directors face in the line of handling Uncle Vanya. Therefore, going back to Stanislavsky, he emphasized on the importance of actor using individual imagination in any given circumstance.

Uncle Vanya is thematically edged with what may sentimentally be defined as a wasted life, and an analysis of the actors and their individual miseries makes this apparent. Admittedly, though, it remains fairly difficult to systematize these notions into a rational theme as they fit in to the plays nastroenie, its forlorn mood or ambiance, than to a distinctive program of thoughts. The diverse artistic tools employed do present a solid flow of thoughts and movement, hence this helps in creating a distinctive space in this piece of work. Unlike any other common performance, Uncle Vanya exudes a formidable crisis which is hard for any individual to interpret. It should be accepted that, Chekhov employed or rather utilized the concept of suspense in total.  Hence, in performance the actors are required to expose the same while showing an ambience of energy and vigor. Therefore, the unique features that are apparent in the Russian performance include well coordinated moves, captivating dialogue as well as the confidence exposed by the performers. This greatly influences the eventual outcome of the play. However, comparing and contrasting both English and Russian performances, it is instrumental to realize that, even the cast and the audience plays a significant role in the way they whole performance is delivered.

Nevertheless, Stanislavsky embraced a very moderate structure in influencing the performance and production of Uncle Vanya.  This is evidenced by the fact that, he employed less draining procedures of having in ways in ones emotions, and more so emphasizing the use of individual subtle and novel imagination and this helped the actors to reflect on the performance texts without having to visualize on the individual private past which perhaps were mired with painful memories. Although a noticeable absence of drama is definitely a type of indirection, Chekhovs proclivity for inserting absurdity into the most ominous pronouncements or circumstances is a radical, anti-dramatic approach. In Uncle Vanya, excruciatingly sad instances are destabilized by incongruous particulars or moments of absolute silliness. In several ways, Chekhov behaves like a magician, by means of the misdirection of comedy to deflect the viewers from the wretchedness that overwhelms Yelena, Vanya, Sonya and Astrov.

 It is widely known that, any given performance, whether thematically anchored within the precipice of sorrow, pain or joy, romance plays an integral party in the manner by which the producers presents their ideas of the play or how they interpret and ensemble the performing cast. Therefore, in regard to Uncle Vanya, it is instrumental to reach to a conclusion that the production team was at cross roads. This is due to the fact that, the way Chekhov had prepared Uncle Vanya was neither more of a comedy nor a tragedy, and this created a mixed reaction.  Despite such a challenge, the producers of English and Russian version shared one thing in common they utilized the concept of space to create real situations by using such prevalent techniques which embraced the system tools such as Given Circumstances, Objectives, and Units as well as the incorporation of Through Line and Emotional Memory which were developed by Konstantin Stanislavsky.

Throughout the performance the actors are supposed to reflect the real world in the movement, voice as well as in their dialogue. It is a fete that the producers employed diverse artistic tools to deliver uncompromised performance in 1900. Stanislavsky, being the producer, understood the challenges of directing and producing the work of such enormous nature as Uncle Vanya. By applying his knowledge of the system he himself developed, it is certain that, the concepts of artistic genuineness onstage are apparent. As an established thespian, he understood the mechanics of production.   Going by what the play revolved around he managed to diffuse hysteria the horror which is often caused by numerous trials in ones past, that engaged some sort of relentless conflict the fear can be anchored on a body part or most frequently on an anticipated predicament. Hence, Stanislavski anticipated that actors should understand and experience personal sentiments and feelings and patent them to viewers by bodily and vocal means - Theatre lingo.

While his System concentrated on creating truthful emotions and then personifying them, he clandestinely managed to present a formidable performance. Delving into the comparison of diverse performances, am convinced that, most performances are not congruent with the play and more so are not equally sensitive to the playwrights conception (Simmons 486). This can be linked to the fact that, more than often meaning is in some cases lost in the manner the play is directed, or where the playwright had independently created a situation where the theme rotates within a plot within a plot. Most producers tend to discard such elements by citing inconsistence. Considering the original concept of Uncle Vanya, the modern performances tends to undercut Chekhovs concept, which reflected his ideas of human suffering, frustrations and sad emotions. Time and again Chekhov presented his characters without drama or humor, hence, most directors perceive Uncle Vanya as an anti-play in some instance.

But to reinforce the whole idea of altering the flow of the idea enshrined in the play it is pivotal to consider theme, plot, suspence, repetation, imagery as well as metaphors where the playwright might have engaged the audience with unfamiliar dialogue, Perhaps, in an attempt to create suspense.  Chekhov further accentuates that old prototypes have been re-established by having Vanya say to Serebryakov at their parting, You will receive what you used to receive accurately. Everything will be as always (Hagen 89). In this case may I point that, the Uncle Vanyas production, in both cases, English and Russian, the productions were somehow congruent with Chekhovs original concept.