The Service Players will bring one of the great classics of the theatre to the Erin Arts Centre in March.

Anton Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya was premiered at the Moscow Arts Theatre in the autumn of 1899 and confirmed his reputation as the Tolstoy of the stage. Sub-titled ‘Scenes from Country Life’, the play explores events in the lives of a provincial Russian family in the setting of their small country estate at the end of the nineteenth century.

This production uses Michael Frayn’s translation, written for a London revival in 1988 which featured Michael Gambon, a ‘brilliant monument to ineffectuality’, as Vanya.  This lean and direct translation gives a modern audience the best opportunity to enter into the story and follow the high drama of the events as they unfold. 

The Erin Arts Centre is the ideal space for this classic play.  Like one of Borodin’s string quartets, it is a deceptive chamber piece which explores on a tiny Russian canvas some of the most compelling and timeless questions which lie at the heart of human life.

The Service Players’ production of Uncle Vanya brings some of the strongest and most experienced actors of the Isle of Man’s long tradition of amateur dramatics to the Erin Arts Centre. Howard Caine leads as Vanya, with Rachel Martin as his niece, Sonya.  Sonya’s father, professor Serebryakov, is played by Bernard Wood, his young wife Yelena by Rachael McWhinnie, Dr Astrov by John Walker, Telegin by Mike Trout and Marina, Sonya’s old nurse, by Una King.  Two of the Service Players’ longest serving members also return to the stage in this production: Jean Webb plays Maria, Vanya’s widowed mother, and David Higgins plays the Workman. Uncle Vanya is directed by Michael Hoy.

Uncle Vanya will be performed at the Erin Arts Centre on Thursday 19th, Friday 20th and Saturday 21st of March at 7.30pm. Tickets may be booked from the Erin Arts Centre Box Office: tel. 832662. There are concessions for students.