More on Uncle Vanya at Lincoln Center Festival

Thoughts are flooding in fast and furious.  The purity of this production staggers me.  I have to go back and read the other translations I have of this play.  Part of the poetry of this production was embedded in the entrances of every single character.  What was being said onstage before any character entered either reflected on that particular character or provided a stark contrast to that character.  I cannot count how many entrances were like this but one in particular I vividly remember: Sonia is complaining about how plain she is and Yelena enters just at the perfect moment to counter-pose the two.  This was like sculpture to me.  It was truly great art.  Unforgettable art. In a world of corruption, and it's everywhere, there was no corruption here.  Nothing was ruined.  And it was so simple.  The actors played clear, clean intentions unmuddled by garbage.  The whole vision of the production true to Chekhov.  If I could challenge myself to clean up the entrances on "Belles" in this way and to simplify the language where it needs it in the way this production has done, I would have a shot at something real.  So I throw down the glove to myself.  Thank you Cate Blanchett and Andrew Upton and Tamas Ascher.  On Ascher's website, it says his productions of Chekhov have run 5 to 7 years in Hungary where there is still a repertory system.  I well know how shows and actors improve with time, having performed as Aphra Behn from 1996 to 2011 and as Jane Austen from 2005 and still going.  Why, why can't we go back to this system in the United States?  It is our loss. http://lincolncenterfestival.org/index.php/2012-uncle-vanya