“It's almost like EastEnders,” says director Mark Waghorn when we discuss the relevance of Chekhov’s brooding play Uncle Vanya to today’s audiences, writes Melanie Dakin. The Pump House Theatre Company is staging the work next week.
“It’s a romance about the ordinary life of a family on a Russian estate that builds to a climax when Vanya is reunited with the beautiful young woman he could have married years ago but didn’t.”
The tribulations of rural life in 19th Century Russia don’t have me thinking immediately of Albert Square but when Mark describes Vanya as a man facing a mid-life crisis, I begin to see similarities between Vanya and Max Branning.
“He feels he’s wasted 25 years of his life. He has regrets about the choices he’s made and finds it’s too late to do anything.”
Mark joined The Pump House Theatre Company two years ago and has performed in See How They Run, In Praise of Love and Death of a Salesman, and with Watford Operatic Society in Annie and Chess. Uncle Vanya marks his Pump House directorial debut and he is also on stage playing Dr Astrov.
“The feelings of jealousy and missed opportunities are the same as we have now. The convention is we talk about things more.”
Uncle Vanya is at The Pump House Theatre, Local Board Road, Watford from Monday, November 10 to Saturday, November 15 at 7.45pm. Details: 07786 844541 (£9)
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