She and her able cast get a lot of genuine laughs in this production, but the tragedy is always there, lending the comedy support. Her Uncle Vanya uses the tragedy as the cake and the comedy as the icing. When you look at the outside, you see the icing, but if I asked you what it was you wouldn’t tell me it was icing, you would tell me it was cake.”īoyd turns my analogy on its ear. The cake is what supports the icing and gives it shape and substance. In May I explained Chekhov’s use of comedy (and he did call his plays comedies) and tragedy using the analogy of a frosted cake: “Think of the tragedy as the icing on a cake of comedy. There is never a bad time to see Chekhov, and Barrington Stage should be applauded on its first effort to bring this author to their stage. It has its flaws, notably the woefully miscast Keira Naughton in the pivotal role of Sonya, but it also has so much to recommend it that I urge you to go. However this is the production of Uncle Vanya that is available to you to see right now, and I would encourage you to do so. While the Barrington Stage production, directed by Julianne Boyd is very good, and uses the same excellent translation by Paul Schmidt, it will never take the place of Daisy Walker’s staging in my heart.

It is one of those productions, out of the hundreds and hundreds that I have seen, which will stay with me always.

I was clear in my review of the Hubbard Hall production of Anton Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya in May that I considered it as close to perfection as possible. One of the trickiest things about being a theatre critic is having to review different productions of the same play in close succession, particularly if the first one you see really moves you.

Uncle vanya paul schmidt