UNCLE VARICK. To 8 May.

Edinburgh

UNCLE VARICK
by John Byrne adapted from Uncle Vanya by Anton Chekhov

Royal Lyceum Theatre To 8 May 2004
Tue-Sat 7.45pm Mat Sat & 28 April, 5 May 2.30pm
Audio-described 29 April, 1 May 2.30pm
Touchtour 1 May 12.30pm
BSL Signed 4 May
Post-show discussion 21 April 7.45pm
Playroom (free, must be booked in advance)24 April 2.30pm
Runs 2hr 55min One interval

TICKETS: 0131 248 4848
Review: Timothy Ramsden 17 April

An excellent new John Byrne play and an interesting view of Chekhov, acted to the hilt.The humour count's up, the reflective quotient down as John (Slab Boys) Byrne moves Chekhov's scenes of country life from late 19th century Russia to north Scotland, 1964. Amid single malt land, the action's set on an estate complete with brewery.

Drams more than pints fill Michael's throat. He's Byrne's version of Chekhov's doctor, Astrov. Seen first as a younger, more purposeful counterpart to Brian Cox's lumbering giant of a Varick, Richard Dillane's unkempt, angry figure in the second, night-time, act indicates how purposeless existence and frustrated ideals destroy people.

The new setting creates two problems. The place may still await a decent TV transmitter, but it doesn't have the endless remoteness that seems frustrates hope and love.

And Russian fin de siecle weariness hardly suits an age when change and hope were in the air. TV may not have made it but the Beatles have - Rubber Soul on the turntable (Norwegian Wood' naturally enough), even entering the amateur squeezebox repertoire of hanger-on Willie John (Bill Murdoch aptly suggesting life's-a-doodle for a character whose aimlessness nears nonentity).

As designer, Byrne creates a splendid forest for the opening act. Ever present, it overlaps the room which emerges after the first act, serving for each interior thereafter; everywhere's much alike in this faded 20-room mansion.

Director Mark Thomson rounds-off his inaugural season with the second of two crack-cast, spot-on productions. Madeleine Worrall's Shona is a proto-feminist, moving from dungarees to lipstick (typical male writer/director stuff) while Isabel Brook is fine as Elaine - a difficult character, all languor and being an object of desire. But the new setting helpfully places her as an appealing sixties girl just missing out on the feminist revolution, and overshadowed by her tetchy media-academic husband.

Two of Scotland's finest women actors give unusual authority to minor roles. Edith Macarthur's mother personifies respectability despite Byrne's sly allocation of risqué titles in her speech, while Kay Gallie's splendid family servant (servant?) smiles at what she doesn't understand because of fondness for the speaker, only becoming shocked at the idea of disruption to their lives. Classy stuff all round.

Kirsty Morag: Kay Gallie
Michael: Richard Dillane
Varick: Brian Cox
Sandy Sheridan: David Ashton
Willie John Telfer: Bill Murdoch
Shona: Madeleine Worrall
Elaine: Isabel Brook

2004-04-20 17:00:24