The Cast
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BARBARA CLEAR (Marina)
is delighted to return to Apple Tree Theatre where she appeared as Mrs. Curtin in last season's production of A Man of No Importance. She is especially pleased to be working once more with her husband, Patrick Clear, and dear friends Ross Lehman and Mark Lococo. Barbara has worked at the Guthrie Theatre, Playwrights Center in Minneapolis, and Pennsylvania Centre Stage among others. Favorite roles include Molly in The Front Page, Joan in Saint Joan and Joan in Dames at Sea. Barbara holds an MFA in Acting from Penn State University. She dedicates this performance to her daughter, Emma, and her husband, Patrick, the loves of her life.
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PATRICK CLEAR (Alexander Serebryakov)
appeared as Mr. Carney/Oscar Wilde in last summer's production of A Man of No Importance. Other Apple Tree productions include Private Eyes and Design for Living. Other Chicago credits include: The Goat, Hollywood Arms, Arcadia, Christmas Carol, Miss Evers' Boys and Dancing at Lughnasa at The Goodman; Measure for Measure, As You Like It, King Lear and All's Well That Ends Well at Chicago Shakespeare Theater; Song of Jacob Zulu and The Secret Rapture at Steppenwolf; Pygmalion and House of Blue Leaves at the Court. He appeared on Broadway in Hollywood Arms and Noises Off. Regional credits: Indiana Rep, Arena Stage, Guthrie Theater, American Shakespeare Theatre, Center Stage, Folger Shakespeare, Huntington Theater and the Cincinnati Playhouse. Film/TV credits include: Losing Isaiah , The Babe “The Untouchables”, “Early Edition” and In the Best Interests of the Children. He is delighted to be sharing the stage once again with his wife, Barbara.
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FLORA COKER (Maria Voynitsky) moved from Virginia to Milwaukee, where she was a member of Theatre X from its founding in 1970 to its close in 2004. She helped to create original plays with Theatre X, touring nationally and in Europe and Japan. Other Milwaukee theatres she has appeared with include Next Act Theatre, Chamber Theatre, Milwaukee Rep, and Florentine Opera. Flora is very pleased to be making her debut at Apple Tree.
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SHAWN DOUGLAS (Mikhail Astov) is delighted to return to Apple Tree where he last appeared as McCann in The Birthday Party. Shawn is an Artistic Associate with Remy Bumppo Theatre Company, where his credits include the title character of the recent Humble Boy, John Tanner in Man and Superman (After Dark Award), Johnny Case in Holiday, and Adolphus Cusins in Major Barbara (Jeff Nomination). Other Chicago roles include Lord Darlington in Lady Windemere's Fan (Northlight), Victor in Private Lives (Writers' Theatre), and McCann in The Birthday Party (Apple Tree). Shawn appeared for three seasons with American Players Theatre in Wisconsin where roles included Christian in Cyrano de Bergerac, Octavius Caesar in Antony and Cleopatra, and King of Navarre in Love's Labours Lost. His directing credits include Romeo and Juliet (Montana Shakespeare in the Parks), as well as Julius Caesar and The Diary of Anne Frank (Theatre at the Center). Shawn teaches acting at Northwestern University .
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KATE FRY (Sonya) returns to Apple Tree, where she appeared in Kindertransport, Falsettos, Baby, and Pygmalion. Recent work includes Lady Teazle in The School for Scandal at the Mark Taper Forum in LA, and Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady at the McCarter Theatre in Princeton. Other credits include work at Court Theatre (The Romance Cycle, My Fair Lady, Twelfth Night, Piano); Chicago Shakespeare Theater (The Moliere Comedies--in conjunction with the Shubert Theater, The Taming of the Shrew, Love's Labor's Lost, As You Like It, The Two Gentlemen of Verona); as well as Marriott Theater, StreetSigns Productions, Drama League of NY, Lincoln Center Directors' Lab, and the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis .
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ROSS LEHMAN (Vanya)
This is Ross' tenth performance at Apple Tree. Last year Ross won a Jeff Award for his performance in A Man of No Importance. Some of his other favorite roles here include The Dresser, Syncopation (Directed by Mark Lococo), Sugar, Waiting for Godot (directed by Eileen Boevers and Mark Lococo), Amadeus, and Where's Charlie (Jeff Award). Ross now lives in Milwaukee where he just appeared at the Milwaukee Repertory in "Lady Windemere's Fan." His New York credits include-- Broadway: Trinculo in The Tempest (with Patrick Stewart), Harding in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and Hysterium in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. Off Broadway, he appeared in the New York Shakespeare Festival productions of ‘Tis Pity She's a Whore, and Wings. He has played Koko in several productions of Hot Mikado, a role for which he has won the Joseph Jefferson Award (Chicago) the Helen Hayes Award (Washington D.C.) and a nomination for the Lawrence Olivier Award (London 's West End). Some of his Chicago roles include Fool in King Lear, Costard in Love's Labour's Lost, Cloten in Cymbeline, and both Tranio and Grumio in The Taming of the Shrew, all at Chicago Shakespeare Theater. He's appeared at Steppenwolf in Mizlansky/Zilinsky, The Man Who Came to Dinner, and Cuckoo's Nest. At the Goodman Theatre he appeared in The Rover, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (Jeff Award), and Waiting for Godot .
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MARK MYSLIWIEC (Ilya Telegin) most recently served in an understudy capacity for Northlight Theatre's Permanent Collection, and returns to Apple Tree where he last appeared in a variety of roles for A Man of No Importance. In Chicago theatre, Mark spent three years at the original Organic Theatre developing scripts through improvisation, performed with Splinter Group, Lifeline Theatre, NOWtheatre, Terrapin Theatre, Irish Rep (where he also has served as a director), and others. His artistic work has been seen regionally for the past 25 years in media ranging from traditional theatre, performance art, design, and multimedia production. A central focus of his artistic exploration is the use of the mask as a means of communication and is the direction of his educational workshops for individuals, designers and actors at every age range; from grade school, college and beyond.
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SUSAN SHUNK (Elena) makes her Apple Tree Theatre debut with Uncle Vanya. Her recent Chicago credits include The Diary of Anne Frank at Theatre at the Center; A Christmas Carol at The Goodman Theatre; Short Shakespeare! A Midsummer Night's Dream at Chicago Shakespeare Theatre; A Dublin Bloom at Irish Repertory; and The Seagull at First Folio Shakespeare. Her regional credits include Ophelia in Hamlet and Anya in The Cherry Orchard at American Player's Theatre; Desdemona in Othello and Imogen in Cymbeline at the Utah Sharespearean Festival; and Celia in As You Like It at the Colorado Shakespeare Festival. Susan is a graduate of the Professional Theatre Training Program at the Universal of Delaware.
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Press
Pioneer Press Feature
Chicago Tribune Review
Pioneer Press Review
Chicagocritic.com Review
New City Review
Lakeland Newspaper Review
Chicago Sun-Times Review
Daily Herald Review
Pioneer Press Top of 2005
Pioneer Press Feature by Myrna Petlicki
There's a bit of an Irish touch to Apple Tree Theatre's "Uncle Vanya." That's because director Mark Lococo is using Brian Friel's adaptation of Anton Chekhov's classic.
"The interesting thing about having an Irishman adapt a Russian piece is that it really does enhance the humanity and universality of the characters, rather than making it place-bound," Lococo said. "It's not so much about Russia as it is about the human condition."
The play begins when a retired professor, married to a beautiful young woman, returns to the country estate that belonged to his first wife. Her brother, Uncle Vanya, has been managing the estate, and sending most of the farm's proceeds to the professor.
The professor's daughter, Sonya, who is about the same age as his wife, also works there. The situation gets increasingly uncomfortable when both Uncle Vanya and a local doctor fall in love with the professor's wife.
Versatile actor Ross Lehman plays Uncle Vanya -- his first role in a Chekhov play.
"Every actor I know has wanted to do Chekhov," Lehman said. "It's such a challenge, and it's so scary. It's not like working on any other playwright. I'm exhilarated by the work every day, and also profoundly moved and shaken up by the contents."
Lehman describes Uncle Vanya as "someone dealing with some big life issues very late in life." That includes falling in love for the first time at the age of 47.
Lococo cast Kate Fry as Sonya.
"The character describes herself as being plain, unassuming and invisible," he said. "Watching Kate, this beautiful young woman, morph into someone who could feel invisible is really a nice process."
Fry describes Sonya as "definitely of marriageable age and unmarried -- which in that period is a big deal -- and probably pretty lonely." Sonya's also a very hard worker. "Without her, the place would fall apart," Fry said.
The role was offered to Fry without an audition, and she gladly accepted it.
"I've liked this character for a long time," she said. "I remember reading the play in college and working on scenes from it, playing a few different characters but relating to her the most."
Fry is also drawn to Sonya's "huge heart. She can look at all these other characters who are tormented and kind of drowning in their own contempt, and see the beautiful things in them. Even though she has something of a martyr complex, she's going to be OK."
'More conversational'
Lococo said he chose Friel's adaptation because "it is a little bit lighter and it is a little more conversational. Some of the Chekhov adaptations tend to be a bit more flowery. Characters seem to flit from topic to topic at times. Friel manages to tie them together well."
Lehman praised the humor and the juxtapositions in Friel's translation.
"He'll have somebody be completely self-reflective, and then completely delusional within seconds," Lehman said.
The play is universal, Lococo noted.
"So many of the characters are in the process of questioning everything that they've done in their life and the meaning of their lives," he said. "I think everybody goes through those transitions at every turn."
"Uncle Vanya" is "very modern," Fry said. "I think Chekhov was way ahead of his time. For him, what constituted drama was not the crises and the pivotal events and the dramatic points in someone's lives. It's the day to day, trivial, ordinary.
"I don't know who can't relate to that. Anybody who's had a Thanksgiving dinner, a Passover dinner or a Christmas dinner with family that you've known forever, and know you, can relate to this play." cast | press | photos | background | tickets
Highlights from the Chicago Tribune Review by Chris Jones
... the fine Chicago actress Kate Fry — who plays stoic Sonya — turns out to be the anchor of an unfussy, intimate, conversational and generally solid Apple Tree revival from director Mark Lococo that turns Apple Tree's space into a likable theater in the round. The production employs Brian Friel's pleasingly literate translation.
Fry is a superb Sonya — a delightful cocktail of defiance and vulnerability, assertiveness and raw fear. When she's well cast, Fry's visage becomes an open book that processes internal change with utter truth but all the subtlety of a casino marquee. And that's ideal for Chekhov.
Lococo was smart enough to move Fry downstage — to within inches of the front rows — at every opportunity. She's supposedly looking out of the window, but really her face is playing the play.
Susan Shunk, a Chicago actress with a bright future, plays Elena (in "Wicked" terms, Glenda to Fry's Elpheba) with utterly contrasting style but equal dexterity. When these two women are on the stage, things don't exactly brighten up (this being Sonya and all), but things do start to happen.
The men are more distant creatures, which is partly (if only partly) as Chekhov intended. Shawn Douglass is one of the most interesting Chicago actors of the moment. As Astrov, he doesn't emotionally engage as profoundly as he did in Remy Bumppo's recent "Humble Boy," but his quirkiness holds one's interest. And Patrick Clear's hapless Serebryakov is nicely transparent, in all its requisite emptiness.
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Highlights from the Pioneer Press review by Robert Loerzel
'Uncle Vanya" is the only one of Anton Chekhov's four stage masterpieces named after a single character.
But don't be fooled. Like Chekhov's other plays, it is an ensemble piece filled with interesting characters and interesting relationships between those characters.
Like any Chekhov play, it demands several strong acting performances -- and the Apple Tree Theatre's current production has more than its share of outstanding performances.
Ross Lehman sharply captures the title character of "Uncle Vanya" with a mix of biting humor, world-weary bitterness, bursts of manic energy and, below it all, great intelligence. Lehman's Vanya should be worn down by the absurdity of the world he perceives around him, but even in his moments of despair, you can feel the vigor of his fight against the unfairness of all.
As Vanya's niece Sonya -- a somewhat plain-looking young woman who can't attract the attention of the man she loves, the country doctor Astrov -- Kate Fry is touching and sympathetic. She never overplays her character's sad situation or allows her scenes to become maudlin, but she radiates Sonya's steadfast good nature.
Shawn Douglass plays Astrov with just the right combination of charm, aloofness and half-submerged emotions.
Patrick Clear also brings an aloof air to his character, Serebyakov, Vanya's brother-in-law, an ailing art professor who has practically taken over the estate. He's also something of a goof, oblivious to much of what's really going on around him. Clear gives a playful performance, undermined only by the fact that he looks a little too young and jaunty for the role -- partly the fault of this production's minimal costumes and makeup.
Every man in the play is in love with the professor's young, second wife, Elena, but her character doesn't really emerge until the play's second half, when Susan Shunk finally gets a chance to show some emotion.
Director Mark Lococo's cast acts out the story on a wide-open set with just a few pieces of furniture and painted images of trees on the theater's walls all around. The effect is almost like Louis Malle's film, "Vanya on 42nd Street," which showed a cast in street clothes performing "Uncle Vanya" in a rehearsal.
This production is not as bare-bones as that movie, but it, too, transports the audience into a very real scenario with a minimum of stage effects.
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Highlights from the Chicagocritic.com reveiws by Brandon Hayes and Tom Williams
There is a moment near the close of the first act of Chekhov's Uncle Vanya when Sonya, brought to vivid psychological life by Kate Fry , is speaking of her beloved Doctor Astrov (Shawn Douglass), and the golden light with which designer Gina Patterson bathes the stage mirrors the light at the edge of the ring of delicately painted birch trees surrounding Apple Tree Theatre's space. The light on the false birches is quoted in the light on Sonya's cheek. It is an exquisite theatrical moment, laden with nostalgia and the heartbreaking transience at the core of Uncle Vanya.
For the most part, the performances here are good. Fry's Sonia stands out as the most gracefully nuanced and subtle rendering. Watch for her resolute, optimistic wink to Vanya as the lights fade. It is a heartbreakingly real moment. Lehman's Vanya is also quite fine. As the wise-cracking voice of reason in the household, Lehman's Vanya gains allies with the audience and helps to define more sharply the stultifying oppression of the more old-fashioned characters. Lehman is able to draw the audience in without pandering. It is a delicate task, particularly in the stage-encompassing configuration Apple Tree has chosen for this play.
... this Uncle Vanya is worth seeing for the performances of Fry and Lehman. ... Fry particularly is worth the trip out to Apple Tree Theatre.
Somewhat Recommended-Brandon Hayes Kate Fry (Sonya), Ross Lehman (Vanya) and Shawn Douglass (Astrov) are three reasons to see Uncle Vanya —the other reason is Anton Chekhov's writing—clearly Uncle Vanya is his masterpiece rich in grand themes and pertinent ideas. The play has several moments—like Vanya trying to shoot Alexander (Patrick Clear), Astrov's speech about the deforestation of Russia and, of course, Sonya's optimistic, stiff-upper lip play-ending speech. Uncle Vanya is an actor's show where the talented “A” list cast get to strut their craftsmanship with a marvelously illuminating script full of wit, sarcasm, humor, despair and hope. Chekhov's look at loneliness, isolation and lack of purpose in one's life could easily mirror out 21 st Century frustrations. This smooth, nicely paced show grabs us early and keeps us engaged throughout.
Uncle Vanya has the main ingredients of wonderful theatre---fine writing, excellent performances and universal themes. Apple Tree Theatre's show will delight.
Recommended-Tom Williams
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Highlights from the New City review by Fabrizio O. Almeida
Apple Tree Theatre's moving revival of Chekhov's classic dramatization of hilarious and heartbreaking "scenes from country life" works largely due to a fluid and modern-sounding interpretation/translation by playwright Brian Friel, dubbed by some critics as the "Irish Chekhov" given the penchant of his own plays...to poeticize the everyday ennui of unfulfilled lives in the provinces. In this "Vanya," a richness of subtext and subtlety abounds alongside flights of fervid fancy, most notably those of Ross Lehman as the eponymous anti-hero. And though it is unfair to single out any one member of the strong ensemble, it is Lehman who more than any other actor effortlessly achieves - through vocal inflections and simple gesticulations - the most cogent exploration of his character's many psychological layers. The play is clearly set in the Russia of yesterday but director Mark Lococo and his team of designers have eschewed any easy period associations to keep the spirit and feel - like Friel's language - current. Whether adorning a period-like costume with a contemporary touch (a denim skirt for the otherwise demure Sonya; a polo for the handsome Astrov) or giving the actors a playing aarea (a studio-like, in-the-round platform with minimal props) versus a naturalistic setting, the design choices clearly help this "Vanya" straddle the past and the present, allowing for a group of nineteenth-century-inspired languid Russian landowners to teach twenty-first-century audiences a thing or two about the human condition.
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Highlights from the Lakeland Newspaper review by Tom Witom
Apple Tree Theatre is wrapping up its 2004-05 season with a highly polished production of Anton Chekhov's "Uncle Vanya" as drawn from a book by Biran Friel.
The two-hour 20 minute show, directed by Mark Lococo, is made all the more intimate by having the stage (for the first time in memory) converted to an in-the-round format.
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Highlights from the Chicago Sun-Times review by Hedy Weiss
Mark Lococo is a director with a lovely sense of naturalism and gentle comedy -- qualities he exploited to winning effect in "A Man of No Importance" (last year's hit musical) and Tom Stoppard's "India Ink," both staged at Apple Tree Theatre.
These same qualities are again apparent in his Apple Tree production of Chekhov's "Uncle Vanya," which uses a lively, modern adaptation by Brian Friel, the Irish playwright who certainly has inherited some of the Chekhov spirit.
What does work well is the way Lococo and set designer Tim Morrison have re-envisioned the theater itself, creating a vast in-the-round spacewith a perimeter of white birch trees and a wide-open central playing space anchored by little more than a massive wood refectory table, Oriental carpets and the autumnal textures of Frances Maggio's costumes.
It is in this great, settled room of a Russian estate that an extended family -- loving and resentful, sensitive and selfish, hopeful and bitter, industrious and lazy -- gathers over the course of a long and tense summer. And it is here, too, that love flares and fizzles, and that tempers are frayed to the breaking point, and the usual consoling sense of order is shattered.
[Ross] Lehman is convincingly rumpled and deftly self-denigrating.
SOMEWHAT RECOMMENDED cast | press | photos | background | tickets
Highlights from the Daily Heral review Jack Helbig
First produced in Moscow in 1899, Anton Chekhov's "Uncle Vanya" is an almost perfect work. Chekhov's characters are interesting and fully realized. His story is simple: A once well-to-do Russian family spends the summer at their estate in rural Russia . But it contains enough surprises to keep us fascinated: The play bristles with unrequited love and thwarted love affairs.
More importantly, there is plenty of room for fine actors to stretch their dramatic wings. Which is exactly what happens in Apple Tree's terrifically acted production of this classic.
The show is packed with so many wonderful performances this review threatens to become little more than a litany of cast members, followed by a few words of praise. Which is fitting, considering that the theater is associated with one of the North Shore 's most well-regarded acting schools: The Eileen Boevers' Performing Arts Workshop.
Ross Lehman leads the cast. This A-list actor is utterly convincing as the much put-upon title character. For 25 years Vanya has sacrificed his life for his family, toiling away, trying to keep the family farm going, and now he is brimming with resentment and unfulfilled dreams.
Good as he is, however, he is not alone. Susan Shunk is wonderful as the young wife of an older man. Her every gesture and pause speaks volumes about her character's essential dilemma: that she wants to be faithful to her husband, but she yearns for a romance he cannot or will not supply. Shawn Douglass, playing a charismatic country doctor, delivers with disarming ease the kind of rich, multilayered performance most actors aspire to but too rarely achieve.
Whenever Douglass enters a scene, he cannot help but dominate it. Which is entirely appropriate since, over the course of the play, his character breaks the heart of not one, but two women in the play.
Kate Fry turns in a moving performance as Sonya, Vanya's niece...
The pace of the production, as set by director Mark Lococo, is just swift enough to carry the story forward without dwelling on the darker, more depressing aspects of Chekhov's tale.
I would be remiss if I did not mention Tim Morrison's fascinating set design, which transforms the Apple Tree space into a theater in the round. The idea is a good one...
"Uncle Vanya" is supposed to fill an audience with questions. Written near the end of Chekhov's life, the play is an always unsettling meditation on death and the meaning of life. But when it is done right, as it has been here, the play is also moving. And very satisfying.
3 1/2 stars out of 4. cast | press | photos | background | tickets
Highlights from the Pioneer Press Top of 2005 by Robert Loerzel
Best supporting actress: Kate Fry gave a moving performance in Apple Tree's "Uncle Vanya," as the title character's niece, Sonya, playing a potentially maudlin role with a gentle touch.
Best supporting actor: Honorable mention: Patrick Clear, "Uncle Vanya," Apple Tree...
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Background
BRIAN FRIEL (Playwright) has emerged as one of the most notable Irish playwrights of the twentieth century. His career as a writer spans nearly forty-five years and encompasses many genres including short stories, original stage plays and adaptations. Friel's writing has strong ties to Russia; nine of his twenty-two dramatic works were adapted from or inspired by Russian authors. Many of Friel's best-known plays including Philadelphia Here I Come!, Translations and Volunteers deal directly with issues of Irish identity and politics. Others, like Molly Sweeney and Dancing at Lughnasa, draw heavily on an Irish storytelling tradition. Dancing at Lughnasa, Friel's most acclaimed work, won the 1991 Olivier Award for Best Play and garnered three Tony Awards. Friel has long been fascinated by Russian writers, and by the work of Chekhov in particular. In 1981, Friel translated his first play, Chekhov's Three Sisters, for the Field Day Theatre in Northern Ireland. Friel returned to Chekhov in 1998 with his translation of Uncle Vanya. In 2001, Friel wrote adaptations of Chekhov's short story Lady with a Lapdog, which Friel titled The Yalta Game, and the relatively unknown Chekhov farce, The Bear. The two dramatists have much in common. Both Friel and Chekhov are noted short story writers as well as playwrights. Both create a sense of old worlds dissolving while characters are left behind in their own realities. They have often been compared for their finesse in combining humor and tragedy.
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