Uncle Vanya - Film and Opera Adaptations

Film and Opera Adaptations

Over the years, Uncle Vanya has been adapted for film several times.

• Uncle Vanya, a 1957 adaptation of a concurrent Off Broadway production that starred Franchot Tone, who co-produced and co-directed the film

• Uncle Vanya, a version of the star-studded 1962-63 Chichester Festival stage production, directed for the stage by Laurence Olivier, who played the Doctor, and also starring Michael Redgrave as Vanya, Max Adrian as the Professor, Rosemary Harris as Elena and Olivier's wife Joan Plowright as Sonya. Harold Hobson of the Sunday Times described the Chichester production as "the admitted master achievement in British twentieth-century theatre" while The New Yorker called it "probably the best 'Vanya' in English we shall ever see".

• Dyadya Vanya, a 1970 Russian film version, adapted and directed by Andrei Mikhalkov-Konchalovsky.

• Vanya on 42nd Street, a 1994 American film version, adapted by David Mamet and directed by Louis Malle. It stars Wallace Shawn and Julianne Moore. Originally a little-known studio production, it was later adapted for the screen, where it garnered wider acclaim.

• Country Life, a 1994 Australian adaptation, set in the Outback, starring Sam Neill as the equivalent of Astrov.

• August, a 1996 English film adaptation, set in Wales, directed by and starring Anthony Hopkins in the Vanya role.

• Additionally, the 2009 film Cold Souls revolves around Paul Giamatti, portraying a loose version of himself, struggling with the title role in a stage production of Vanya.

Sonya's Story, an opera adapted by director Sally Burgess, composer Neal Thornton and designer Charles Phu, portraying events in the play Uncle Vanya from the character Sonya's perspective, premiered in 2010.