The Oxford Dictionary of Plays

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Uncle Vanya

Uncle Vanya (Dyadya Vanya)

Alternative Title: Uncle Vania; August

Author: Anton Chekhov

First Performance: 1897, Russian provinces; Moscow, 1899

Published: 1897

First English Translation: 1912

Genre: Drama in 4 acts; Russian prose

Setting: Serebryakov's estate, rural Russia, 1890s

Cast: 5m, 4f

Ivan Voinitsky (Uncle Vanya), with the help of Sonya, his niece, manages the estate of his brother-in-law Aleksandr Serebryakov, who is a celebrated retired professor of art. Serebryakov arrives with his young new wife Yelena. Soon Vanya, who is disillusioned about Serebryakov's achievements, falls in love with Yelena, as does Mikhail Astrov, an idealistic doctor. Yelena rebuffs Vanya's advances, and Sonya tries to make Astrov understand that she loves him. She asks...

[The entire page is 346 words long]

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