Translation and Adaptation of Uncle Vanya

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TRANSLATION AND ADAPTATION OF UNCLE VANYA

______

A Thesis

Presented to the

Faculty of

San Diego State University

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In Partial Fulfillment

of the Requirements for the Degree

Master of Arts

Theatre Arts

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Ksenia P. Vanyan

Summer 2010

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Ksenia P. Vanyan

DEDICATION

I would like to dedicate this work to my mother. You have been a source of strength for me in more ways than I could ever explain to you. Your love and persistence to push me to be a better person will never be forgotten. You have always inspired me to go beyond what I think I could achieve. I dedicate this to you, you have my heart. Thank you for never giving up but loving me, I love you. Ya Tebya Ochen Lyblyu!

ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS

Translation and Adaptation of Uncle Vanya by Ksenia P. Vanyan Masters in Theatre Arts San Diego State University, 2010

Studying foreign plays and translating them from the original language is a work of art. Understanding original language is a process and a dissection of grammatical rules, subtext, idioms, and sentence structure. The Russian language is rich with words that don’t always have a literal translation into English. The translator is able to use her or his knowledge of both languages to come up with a word that best fits the original. In this thesis, I am translating Uncle Vanya from Russian into English. The play was written in 1897, in an older, classical language that might seem unnatural to a modern reader. In this translation, the focus is on creating a translation of Uncle Vanya that will be accessible to a modern audience, preferably a younger audience, college level and higher. Classical plays have a way of not reaching a modern day theatre enthusiast because of the language barrier that exists between the cultural context in which they were written and the context in which they are read or performed today. In Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya, the action takes place over one hundred years ago. Not only is the language different, but culturally and socially there is a vast difference between then and now that needs to be shown on stage. By translating using a modern dialogue, that gap can be bridged. In this version of Uncle Vanya, I have edited sentences, as well as some words. The translation that is done is not a literal translation therefore: this play is an adaptation of the original into a modern voice, with additions to the dialogue and eliminations of certain words and phrases. It is important not only to understand the cultural context in which the play was originally written, but the author’s personal style of writing. Even if the translation is not word for word, the themes and ideas that the playwright intended to have in the play should not be lost, but on the contrary should be made accessible to the audience.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PAGE

ABSTRACT ...... v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ...... vii CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION ...... 1 Background on Chekhov...... 1 Chekhov’s Inspiration for Writing His Plays ...... 3 Chekhov’s Characters and Plot Summary in Uncle Vanya ...... 5 2 WHY TRANSLATING IS IMPORTANT ...... 10 3 WHY UNCLE VANYA: HOW DOES THIS PLAY RESONATE WITH A MODERN AUDIENCE? ...... 12 WORKS CITED ...... 16 APPENDIX UNCLE VANYA ...... 17

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

To my committee chair, Dr. D.J. Hopkins: Thank you for being the chair on my committee. You have been such a great source of help and support throughout this process. I have learned a great deal from you during my time as San Diego State University and I must say that having worked with you in undergrad as well as grad school has been a real honor. Thank you for all your work with me on this thesis, encouraging me to pursue what I love in theatre but also cautioning me to not get overwhelmed. I would not have been able to do this without your support. Thank you very much. The Wooster Group will always have a special place in my heart and who knows; maybe one day I will be submitting a script I translate for them to produce! Carolyn Keith: Thank you for your faith in me. I have been so honored to have had you as my teacher and counselor. You have been there to support me from day one, and I would not have been able to get through my years at SDSU without your help. Thank you for being a member of this committee. Thank you for having an open door any time I needed to talk and share ideas and get feedback. Thank you for your support and encouragement. Dr. Veronica Shapovalov: Spasibo Vam Ogromnoe! Thank you so much for taking me under your wing and allowing me to learn from you. I have been most fortunate to have had the pleasure of working with you over the last two years. Thank you for being flexible with my schedules and class needs. I would not have been able to translate this play if it was not for your guidance on how to approach this translation, where to begin and how to work through it. Thank you for reminding me why Russian is so important to me. It has been a great pleasure working with you on this project. Your encouragement and support has been needed and appreciated. Thank you for everything! Robin Goret: Thank you so much for all your help! You have been so incredible throughout this process, a great friend, and amazing support system. The work you have done in helping me with formatting is incredible! You are forever loved by me and I am always here for you. Thank you from the bottom of my heart! You are a true inspiration!

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

BACKGROUND ON CHEKHOV Anton Pavlovich Chekhov created a place in theatre where life was performed on stage and the audience was allowed to look at themselves in the reflections of the characters before them. His approach was simple: to show characters and plot lines that would ring true to the viewers. His characters engaged the audience because they were life like: the obstacles his characters faced were everyday issues that people can relate to no matter what their social status, cultural background, age, or gender. Chekhov’s plays had a tremendous effect on the theatrical community in Russia when his plays started being performed. His plays are accessible, and in that is the magic of his work and the necessity to keep translating his work to pass it on to new generations of theatre enthusiasts. Anton Pavlovich Chekhov was born on January 29, 1860 in Taganrog, on the Sea of Azov.1 After his family moved to Moscow, due to his father’s going bankrupt, he followed them there to study medicine after high school. While studying medicine, which he finished in 1884, he worked on his writing and had his first newspaper article published in 1881. Between the years of 1881and1885, he had two volumes of short stories published. Ivanov was the first play that was professionally produced on by The Korsh Theatre in 1887, and a year later it was performed in St. Petersburg. That year he was awarded the Pushkin Prize2 by the Imperial Academy. In 1888 he wrote The Wood Demon, which was performed at a private theatre in Moscow. The play failed in its first production, and Chekhov moved on to working on a different project. He wrote The Seagull in 1896 which also experienced some setbacks initially but eventually received great reviews and became a successful show. After

1 Also called the old Black Sea Port of Taganrog. Anton Chekhov, Melchinger. 2 The Pushkin Prize was established in 1881 by the Russian Academy of Sciences to honor Alexander Pushkin. Since then the prize has been awarded to writers who have achieved the highest standard of literary excellence. The prize was discontinued during the Soviet period, but has since been restored in the 1990s.

2 seeing how well The Seagull was received, he went back to The Wood Demon, and rewrote it creating the play that we know today as Uncle Vanya.3 Chekhov wrote four major plays that have become icons in Russian as well as Western theatre: The Sea Gull, The Cherry Orchard, The Three Sisters, and Uncle Vanya. Of his four plays, Uncle Vanya is the least known, yet it is a play to which a modern viewer is able to relate. In 1899 Chekhov gave a revised version of Uncle Vanya to the Moscow Art Theatre, run at the time by Konstantin Stanislavski. Having Chekhov’s plays produced at the Moscow Art Theatre brought fame both to the theatre company and Chekhov, but the artistic relationship between Stanislavski and Chekhov was not always an easy one. Chekhov considered his plays to be satirical, and did not always agree with the way Stanislavski directed them, but none the less both Chekhov and Stanislavski had great success at the Moscow Art Theatre. Chekhov kept practicing medicine all his life, but as his writing progressed he focused more on his theatrical work than medicine. Chekhov was a complex Russian writer; although not as complex as Dostoevsky, or as focused on personal torment as Tolstoy. He was a man who was known as a kind, gentle writer but who lived in such privacy that even his closest friends did not know him at times (Kirk 2). He was not loud, he did not make scenes, he was not involved in politics (for which he received a fair amount of criticism), yet his plays resonated with critics as well as the public, mainly because his plays, which do not have monumental dramatic action, were able to penetrate people’s subconscious and show on stage a mirror of their own lives. Robert Louis Jackson sheds light on Chekhov’s motivations for writing his plays by stating that “Chekhov considered his plays to be a kind of comic satire, pointing out the unhappy nature of existence in turn-of-the-century Russia” (Jackson 27). Chekhov wanted to show the audience their own existence, he wanted them to come to his plays and see themselves in the characters they saw on stage. He wanted the viewers to relate to the characters and their battles and their victories and see their own lives and perhaps make changes because of what they saw. Many Russian as well as American critics felt as did Ivan Bunin, quoted in Kirk, who said that, “The joy of life was the essence of his nature and that it is reflected in his work”

3 Historical and biographical information was taken from Melchinger’s Anton Chekhov.

(56). Chekhov had an understanding about the world, and he allowed what he experienced around him to influence how he lived and wrote. He was rather spontaneous in his life, yet when he would sit down and write his characters, he had a clear objective about his intentions for those characters. Critics have compared his style of writing more to a twentieth century European existentialist than to his fellow Russian writers, who focused on political ideologies (Kirk 3). In 1901 he married Olga Knipper, a young actress who acted in his plays. During the winters they lived apart due to his illness; she stayed in Moscow to pursue her acting career; Chekhov had to live on the warm coast of Crimea and the French Riviera, to help with his health. Chekhov died in 1904 from tuberculosis. Unfortunately he was not able to see many of his plays performed because of his illness. Chekhov left behind a legacy that is not easy to summarize in a book or a play, but by studying his work, we are able to have a glimpse into who he was and why the plays that he wrote over one hundred years ago still resonate with us today.

CHEKHOV’S INSPIRATION FOR WRITING HIS PLAYS Chekhov’s characters walk amongst us every day. Vladimir Kataev said in his book, If Only We Could Know: An Interpretation of Chekhov: “One thing I have noticed, is how many Chekhov characters are living in the world. Only they don’t realize it” (Kataev ix). Chekhov wrote about life. What he saw around him was his inspiration. He did not need to read Greek tragedies to find a dramatic inspiration, all he had to do was spend an afternoon with his family, or a weekend in the country side and he would be inspired to write about life as he saw it. Real life is not a movie or a thirty minute sitcom: it is complex, and problems, no matter how big or small, don’t get resolved quickly. There is no guarantee that there will be a resolution at all. Chekhov used to say, “Above all, my friends… one must never lie… In art, one cannot lie… in love, in politics, in medicine, one can deceive a man and even the dear Lord…In art that is impossible” (Melchinger 3). Chekhov was inspired to write by the world around him, be it in the beauty of his wife’s eyes, or in a hospital room, he drew his inspiration from the world around him, which is one of the reasons people were moved by his work.

Chekhov did not believe that having material wealth would bring personal fulfillment. He understood that even if people attained personal wealth that would not mean that they would find contentment. Chekhov was interested in the nuances that happen in people’s psyche when they can’t get what they want. He was curious to see how people react when they have to deal with loss, separation, and everyday frustrations. Chekhov wanted to understand the human psyche so he could portray humanity beyond appearances (Kirk 3). Chekhov sought after a truth on stage that mirrored the life he saw around him. Chekhov’s plays reflected the world the audience lived in and for a Russian audience, who were used to seeing Greek tragedies, Shakespeare and dramas on stage that had huge plot lines, elaborate staging, with costumes and spectacle, this new approach to theatre that Chekhov was introducing was refreshing. After his plays began emerging on stage, not all of them were accepted in the theatre community at that time: several plays such as The Wood Demon (1888) had to be reworked and, yet other plays for example, The Cherry Orchard, Three Sisters, and The Seagull, were well received and performed all over Russia including the Moscow Art Theatre where Konstantin Stanislavsky directed and acted in them. Chekhov said in one of his letters, “When a cup of coffee is set before you, you don’t try to find beans in it. When I set before you the thoughts of the Professor in Uncle Vanya, listen well, and don’t search in them for the thoughts of Chekhov”(Melchinger 5). Because of the way he grew up, poverty was not a concept to him but a reality, especially in his childhood, so after he came into money and was able to live a comfortable life, he purchased an estate outside of Moscow and cared for patients there free of charge, as a way to give back to his country and his people. He was a man who worked on his writings, helped the sick and constantly used his life and the world he saw around him to influence his stories and plays. Chekhov had a revelation when he went on his one-man expedition to Sakhalin, an island between the Tatar Straight and the Sea of Okhotsk. He recorded the conditions of the people who were deported to Sakhalin, an island predominantly used at that time as a penal colony, his view of why he wrote plays, and what he wanted to say solidified. He realized that what he needed to do was “to present to the public the conditions as they really were – to evoke emotions, horror, indignation, and anger to move people to reflection. The truth, as Chekhov sought it out and presented it, is a kind of unmasking” (Melchinger 10). He was

5 always focused on the truth, fully realizing that each individual will have a different truth to show. What he wanted to do for the audience who came to see his plays was to show them a reflection of themselves, and hopefully in that experience they might be able to be honest with themselves about who they are and what they want from their life. “Chekhov was known for the brevity of his expression, for understatement, and within that understatement he was able to give a profound perception of human nature. The brevity served not to narrow but to define the very substance of life” (Kirk 3). His perception of humanity is what keeps audiences going back to see his plays. His plays may lack dramatic spectacle, flashy lights and deus ex machina, but on the other hand he gently invites us into the subconscious of his characters and as we live there for two hours we are able to get in touch with our own subconscious, humanity and perceptions of life. His plays are not there to change our opinions of the world, or make drastic changes in our lives, instead, Chekhov encourages us in the audience to face ourselves and by watching the performance on stage become more self aware and conscious of our own existence.

CHEKHOV’S CHARACTERS AND PLOT SUMMARY IN UNCLE VANYA Uncle Vanya, the title character in the play, lives on a country estate with his younger sister and his mother; and Telegin and the Nanny, servants that have been in this household all their lives. Vanya’s older sister was married to Alexander Serebryakov, a professor of art and history. The professor’s first wife was Uncle Vanya’s sister, but she passed away, leaving her estate to her husband. Serebryakov moved into the estate with his new, young wife Yelena, to rest and get better because of his health problems. Due to his illness he is no longer able to work and lecture, so he sits all day in his study reading and writing. Vanya has spend the last twenty-five years of his life working for the professor, helping him with his research, taking care of the house, and sending him money every month. During the time that the professor and his young wife are living in the country we discover that Uncle Vanya is in love with Yelena: Uncle Vanya: “Can I possibly look at you any other way, when I am in love with you? You are my happiness, my life, and my youth. I know my chances with being with you are nonexistent, completely zero and I don’t ask for anything, but allow me to just look at you, and hear your voice. Yelena: Be quiet, someone will hear you!

Unfortunately He is not the only one in love with Yelena. The love triangle intensifies when Serebryakov is visited by a local doctor Astrov, the only one in the province. Astrov is a unique character. Astrov knows that life has ruined him and he is not what he used to be, he considers himself to be a man who is incapable of loving. He is proud of his mind and his knowledge. In some ways he considers himself better than most people around him. He also enjoys replanting forests. For him it’s a way to connect to the future and save the environment. Astrov is a character that would be very interesting to put in front of a modern day audience and see their reaction to a character that was written one hundred years ago, when ideas like environmentalism were not in people’s minds the way they are today. Astrov feels passionate about his forestry, yet as he tries to explain it to Yelena as well as Uncle Vanya, it’s clear that neither one of them is interested in his vision. The only person who appreciates his passion for it is Sonya. She sees him as an incredible man who wants to save the forests, and heal the sick, a renaissance man, and to her he is perfect. Unfortunately even his passion for the sick and the forests fall to the wayside the minute he begins spending all his time with Yelena. Instead of coming to the villa when called up on by the professor, he begins coming over every day to spend time with her, and in his quest for her affection neglects his patients and his forests. At which point he does address that her laziness has bewitched him, and she is the kind of person who infects those around her with lack of interest for anything except for spending time with her. His journey is clear: he cannot stay at the house any longer because although he shares a kiss with Yelena and tries to persuade her to come to the forest and have an affair with him, his affection for Yelena is purely physical, unlike Vanya who truly loves her. Vanya regrets not having been interested in Yelena before, he regrets not pursuing her when he was younger, but there is nothing he can do except watch her leave with her husband, the man who not only stole the best years of Vanya’s life, but also the woman he loves. The unrequited love triangle gets even more uncomfortable because Sonya, Vanya’s younger sister, is also in love with the doctor, and in her shy way tells him about her feelings: Sonya: (Alone after Astrov leaves) He did not tell me anything. His heart and soul are hidden from me, than why should I feel so lucky and happy right now? (She laughs from happiness) I told him, you are handsome, respectable; you have such a lovely voice, was all that for nothing? His voice was shaking, but it’s kind at the same time. I can feel him in the air. When I told him about a younger sister, he

did not understand. (Hurting her hand) Ah, this is so horrible; I am so pitiful and unattractive! This is absolutely horrible. I know I am unattractive, I know that! Astrov responds by saying he does not love any one, but unfortunately she is so taken by him that she is happy that she told him how she feels. Yelena on the other hand is also intrigued by the doctor; her feelings for him are not love, but admiration for him. He is much younger than her husband, he is handsome, intelligent and interested in her. Yelena and Astrov engage in flirtation which leads to a kiss. Yelena and Sonya have a difficult relationship because Sonya does not welcome Yelena into her house. Of course in the middle of the love triangle, Sonya opens up to Yelena about her feelings towards Astrov. In return Yelena offers to help Sonya find out the truth if Astrov has mutual feelings towards her. After Yelena leaves to talk to Astrov about his feelings towards Sonya, and the answer is clear that he does not like Sonya in a romantic way, he ridicules Yelena for being so heartless. Astrov: (shakes her hand) Yes, you should leave… it seems that you are a kind, honest person, but there is also something very strange in your being. You came here with your husband, and everyone who lives or works here, gave up all their errands and their work and solely focused on catering to you and your husband. You both have poisoned everyone here with your celebrations. I also became bewitched, I have not done anything in a month, and during that time people were sick and forests, strangers were using my forests without permission. So where ever you or your husband goes, you both bring destruction to any where you go. I might be wrong, but if you were to stay the desolation that would happen would be tremendous. I would be ruined, and you too, all would be bad. Then on your way you go! This comedy is now finished! He is convinced that Yelena is aware of his feelings for her; he kisses her, at which point they get caught by Vanya. For Vanya, this is the straw that breaks the camel’s back, and after a heated argument with Serebryakov about his intention to sell the estate Vanya has an emotional breakdown. This is where all Vanya’s feelings and anger towards Serebryakov come out and he confronts him, saying that he stole the best years of Vanya’s life: Vanya: No, I won’t be quiet! (Blocks Alexander’s way out) I am not done yet, you ruined my life. I did not live, did not live at all. Because of your existence I am ruined and destroyed the best years of my life. You are my worst enemy! After the verbal argument that Vanya has with Serebryakov, Vanya attempts to shoot the professor twice, but misses both times, which humiliates him and causes the professor and Yelena to make a final decisions to leave the estate because it is unbearable for them to live under such conditions. After the outburst and every one leaves Uncle Vanya and Sonya

8 submerge themselves in work, taking care of the house. While the professor and his wife were there, all the house chores stopped getting done; the routine that kept that house alive was interfered and nothing was in order. Now that the two people who have disturbed the peace in the house have left, Uncle Vanya and his sister can go back to their old life and routine. The two characters that we see at the end of this play that have undergone the most change are Vanya and Sonya. She had her heart broken, she is sure she will never find love so all she has is her brother and the house. Vanya realizes that his best years are behind him, he is aware that it’s too late for him to have any positive change in his life. They are both worse off than when we met them because they have come face to face with the reality of life and, it has changed them. If Chekhov’s point with these characters is to unmask them then Uncle Vanya is a brilliant play that shows us these characters unveiled. Astrov, who loved planting his forests and worked day and night healing the sick, neglected all his duties and responsibilities for a month because he was enchanted with Yelena. He began drinking and wasted his time with her, following her around, while his forests were being cut down and his patients were dying because he was not there to look after them. Serebryakov cannot come to terms with the fact that he is getting old. He hates that he is sick; he cannot accept the fact that no one wants him to teach any more, and people are no longer interested in his research. He feels useless because he no longer has the power he once had. He had a way of charming people to make them think that he was interesting and charismatic. Now those qualities are gone and he does not know who he is. Yelena married him for his prestige, not for love, and even though it seemed that it would be understandable for her to be unfaithful to him, other than the kiss with Astrov, she did not cheat on her husband but promptly left with him after the altercation with Vanya. In the end, the people who disturbed the peace left. Astrov went back to his patients, Sonya and Vanya went back to their chores, and although nothing dramatic happened in the play, the characters are not the same as when we met them. The change is slight but it’s a sincere change that Chekhov was showing. The kind of change that happens after a meaningful conversation or a fight with someone we don’t like. The change that is addressed in this play is a subtle transformation of the characters, focusing on inner change as well as

9 realizations about the world they live in and how it’s different from what they have hoped it would be. If the theme in this play is wasted life and dealing with things like every day mundane work, rejection as well as pursuing unrequited love, then this play can not only affect the lives of an audience today, but has lessons worth paying attention to. Chekhov does not define what is right or wrong, what he does is shows us a group of people who are living their lives, with everyday tasks, and emotional turmoil and dreams unfulfilled. Chekhov does not have rules by which the audience should examine the play and how it should be understood. He presents life on stage as he saw it in the world around him. He gives his characters room to grow through their own hopes, and allows them to fail on their journey. It is in those moments of failures that we see the biggest change in the characters, and we are able to reflect upon ourselves. Our personal journey that also has disappointments but within the trials comes strength and growth, that is worth seeing on stage, that is what inspires the audience to come back and Uncle Vanya allows us to do that.

CHAPTER 2

WHY TRANSLATING IS IMPORTANT

Umberto Eco begins his book, Experiences in Translation with this compelling statement: “If there is a language of truth, in which the final secrets that draw the effort of all thinking are held in silent repose, then this language of truth is true language. And it is precisely this language – to glimpse or describe it is the only perfection the philosopher can hope for – that is concealed intensively in translations” (10). Translators have a job far more interesting then plugging in one word in one language for another one. Translating is an artistic study as well as an academic one. “A translator must take into account rules that are not strictly linguistic but, broadly speaking, cultural” (Eco 17). Eco’s point is that while understanding grammar, phonetics, how to structure a sentence and how to conjugate words are crucial parts of a translator’s work, if the translator is not familiar with the cultural aspects of the text he or she is translating, then the information that is being translated could be taken out of the context and interpreted incorrectly. Understanding a language is more than just knowing the rules and having the knowledge of how to substitute one word for another, there is a research process that must take place of the culture and the history behind the original language as well as the language that is being translated into. I believe strongly that the best translators are those who have had the opportunity to work with both languages for an extensive period of time. For example, someone who was born in Russia will be able to understand the silences in the dialogue or the pauses between certain words that would be difficult to explain to a non Russian native speaker. Therefore the translator needs to find a way to recreate that pause or silence in the translation in such a way that it will make sense to the reader without taking the meaning from the original text. An author like Chekhov has a very distinct way of writing. He uses a lot of descriptive words to paint a picture, so the audience/ reader is able to fully grasp what is happening with the characters and the world they are living in. Sometimes words simply don’t translate from one language to another. There might not be an equivalent word that means the same thing, in which case the translator must find a way to give a longer

11 explanation in the translation, but that explanation should not take away from the main idea the author was originally saying. According to Eco, “If no word in a language is exactly the same as any other word in a different language, and languages are reciprocally incommensurable, either translating is impossible or it consists in freely interpreting the source text and recreating it” (21). In this case, it is up to the translator to gather all the information about a certain subject and culture and use all available resources come up with a translation that will sufficiently interpret what is being said from one language to another. To me, as a translator, it is more important to get the right idea across then to have a literal translation. When I listen to a Russian film and read the subtitles, they might not be a word for word translation, but the meaning is the same, I would rather have an American audience understand the context of what is being said, than have a literal translation, but miss what the text was meant to say. By translating Uncle Vanya I am able to give this play a voice in a modern American world. I can introduce this play to a new audience that will relate to my language and my understanding of American theatre culture as well as the audience who would be seeing this play. It is the every day, menial things that we do that make up our lives. It’s the repetitive work and the same conversations and the same people that surround us that make up who we are. Chekhov in writing his plays did not use plots and themes that would be foreign to his audience. On the contrary, he put his audience back into their homes, into their country houses, into their love affairs and created a world where people could identify with the characters on stage on a level that was raw and never seen before. He used everyday situations, and created a venue in which the audience could look at themselves on stage, laugh at the characters, and inadvertently laugh at themselves. Uncle Vanya is a play that focuses on the meaninglessness of life. After Chekhov revisited The Wood Demon and made changes to it, the end result was a “haunting portrait of the sense of futility and wasted lives that burdened men and women enduring disappointment and frustrations amid rural tedium” (Jackson 37).The main character realizes that the life he has was pointless and that it’s too late to do anything about it.

CHAPTER 3

WHY UNCLE VANYA: HOW DOES THIS PLAY RESONATE WITH A MODERN AUDIENCE?

Chekhov was ahead of his time, and productions of his plays must not look to the past. And perhaps not even to the theatre of the present. Chekhov is a man of the future, and it is there he must be sought. -Goergy Tovstonogov 4

In 2010, in the United States of America people are experiencing one of the greatest recessions since the 1920s. Companies at which people have worked for years are closing, people are getting fired after investing their life’s’ work into those companies. SDSU is no exception: faculty and staff are being let go regardless of how long they have been here, and although in some instances seniority has a say, that is not always the case. Uncle Vanya has spent his life giving all his time to help with a professor’s work. At a certain point in the play, when the professor talks about selling the house so he and his wife can move to Western Europe, Vanya has a break down, and verbalizes the realization he came to earlier in the play, that his life has been wasted working for this man. For twenty-five years this old mother of mine and I sat within these four walls. I was like a mole…all our thoughts and feelings were focused on you, only on you. In the day time we talked about your achievements, we were proud of you, uttered your name with the deepest reverence and at night we sat up till all hours reading those books and articles of your for which I now feel the utmost contempt! We all knew your writings by heart… but now my eyes have been opened. You write about art, but you don’t understand the first thing about art. All those works of yours which I once loved so much are not worth a penny. You have ruined my life! I have had no life at all. Thanks to you I have thrown away, have utterly wasted, the best years of my life…

Uncle Vanya expresses in this excerpt exactly how he feels, and when it is performed and staged it should be slightly comical and melodramatic, but people laugh at their misfortune more often than they cry about their trials, so if an audience member watches this

4 Quote taken from Curt Columbus, in his introduction to Uncle Vanya (3).

13 scene and senses slight comedy and exaggeration, it’s because it was intended to be there. It would be interesting to see how many people, after watching this play, could look back on their lives and conclude that perhaps they too have wasted their time on meaningless things that they thought were important. Chekhov loved truth, loved to laugh, and one of the methods he used in creating characters that the viewers could relate to was to make them exaggerated in some cases. Perhaps it is ironic that Uncle Vanya goes and grabs the gun right after this scene and tries to shoot Serebryakov, and having failed to kill him, attempts to shoot himself and also fails at that. If Uncle Vanya did commit suicide, the play would be over. The irony of this story is that instead of anyone being murdered, Uncle Vanya misses twice, and is not only humiliated by his bad aim, but by the fact that his family won’t give him the satisfaction of calling him crazy. The professor decides to leave with his wife, which suits her because of her personal reasons for not wanting to stay in this house. At the end of the day, the conclusion is simple: not only does Vanya has an a epiphany regarding his wasted life, he tries to take matters in to his own hands, he fails in that attempt twice, and is left broken and hopeless. The simplicity of his failure and depression is not a dramatic sequence of events or the ghost that plagues Hamlet for example, but it is everyday life that does not seem to work in his favor. In Russia, at the time when this was written, prescription drugs were not something that existed. People of stature often took their own lives, in order to still look dignified in their death, or one could drink oneself into oblivion, which is what Astrov does, or immerse oneself in one’s work as Vanya decides to do at the end of the play. Of course in those situations we have a choice, and in this story the characters we are introduced to choose to not change their situations. As Melchinger says in his book Anton Chekhov, “In this grim irony there is now a note of the tragic. Everything will again be as it as was before all this began. And everything will not be as it was before. And nothing will ever be as it should be” (119). This play reminds the audience of the frailty of life and that everyday occurrences do shape our lives. At the end of the play, Sonya has a long monologue in which she tries to comfort Uncle Vanya, saying that if they focus on work and work tirelessly, then perhaps their reward will be to rest in their graves: “We shall rest. I believe I believe …we shall rest” (Melchinger 119). She is comforting Vanya, but she is also comforting herself, knowing that the love she

14 wanted will never be realized. All she knows is hard work, working beside her brother, and that knowledge gives her the stability and the strength to continue. In her last words there is a note of hope for the afterlife, but also a distinct realization that the life she is living will never be what she wants it to be. Sonya is another character that the audience can relate to without the dramatic love scenes and crushing rejections; she fell in love with a man who was not interested in her, but as he says it himself, “I am not capable of loving any one, I only love beauty.” She is a victim of unrequited love. The way that Chekhov allows us to connect with her is vulnerable and touching, yet the connection that is made between Sonya and the audience has an element of pity and empathy, because we relate to her. Sonya channels all her energies into putting the house back in order after the professor and his wife leave, because, if nothing else, doing so will give her the stability she needs. Chekhov understood the difference between life and its representation on stage. He expressed dissatisfaction with the Moscow Art Theatre when they did The Seagull, because the director Stanislavski had promoted it as being a realistic play. Chekhov got frustrated with that description and exclaimed, “But the theatre is art!” (Melchinger 4). Chekhov’s method has been compared to Cezanne’s, he did not wish to represent truth itself, but he wanted to represent a representation of the truth (Melchinger 4). Chekhov spoke of “Quintessence,” which is what he wanted to show on stage: to achieve this quintessence, “one must discard everything that is superfluous” (Melchinger 4). Chekhov struggled to have his plays not be superfluous and to show a representation of truth. Knowing that his plays are acted on stage and that there can only be a certain amount of reality in acting, he hoped that his characters would take on a life on their own in performance. In his introduction to his translation of Uncle Vanya, Curt Columbus talks about Uncle Vanya as an American play: “Uncle Vanya is an American play. Family members come for a visit, they fight, they scream, someone fires a gun and then everyone makes up and says ‘See you next Christmas’ ” (4). The play does not incorporate elaborate tragedies, nor does it call for duels, revenge, destruction, or unrealistic predicaments with which the audience cannot relate. This play deals with a family in the countryside, who, over a few months, deal with personal issues like love and the loss, personal revelations about who they are, ambitions and goals that will never be fulfilled. Each of these characters could do something to get out of their predicament, but the brilliance of what Chekhov did in Uncle

Vanya is that he allowed the characters to be normal people. Having the desire to be something more in life is a drive that motivates people to get up in the morning, people by nature search for an answer to their personal problems, work on improving themselves daily, yet left to their own devices people don’t follow through on their resolutions. Chekhov reached a level of honesty in this play that speaks to all generations, in different countries and social circles. For an American audience, this is a play that not only reflects each of us, but also allows each audience member to reflect on life as a story without a grand finale, but a continuation, a journey on which each one must embark alone.

WORKS CITED

Chekhov, Anton. Plays. London: Bradda Books LTD, n.d. Print.

Chekhov, Anton. Uncle Vanya. New Translation by Curt Columbus. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 2002. Print.

Chekhov, Anton. Uncle Vanya: Scenes from county life in four acts. Trans. Guthrie Tyrone, Kipnis Leonid.Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1969. Print.

Eco, Umberto. Experiences in Translation. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1998. Print

Friedberg, Maurice. Literary Translation in Russia: A Cultural History. University Park: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 1997. Print.

Jackson, Louis Robert. Reading Chekhov’s Text. Illinois: Northern University Press, 1993. Print.

Katzner, Kenneth. English-Russian/ Russian-English Dictionary. N.p.: A Wiley-Interscience, n.d. Print.

Kataev, Vladimir. If Only We Could Know! An interpretation of Chekhov. Ed. Harvey Pitcher. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 2002. Print.

Kirk, Irina. Anton Chekhov. Twayne’s World Author Series. A Survey of the World’s Literature. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1981. Print.

Landers, Clifford E. Literary Translation. A Practical Guide. New Jersey: Multilingual Matters LTD, 2001. Print.

Leighton, Lauren G. Two Worlds, One Art. Literary Translation in Russia and America. Illinois: Northern Illinois University Press, 1991. Print.

May, Rachel. The Translator in the Text. On Reading Russian Literature in English. Northwestern University Press. Illinois: Evanston, 1994. Print.

Melchinger, Siegfried. World Dramatists: Anton Chekhov. New York: Fredetrick Ungar Publishing Co, 1972. Print.

Senelick, Laurence. “Semper Fidelis” Theatre Journal. N.p.: John Hopkins University Press, 2007. Print.

APPENDIX

UNCLE VANYA

Cast of Characters:

Serebryakov Alexander Vladimirovich (Prof): Retired Professor Yelena Andreevna: His wife 27 years old Sophia Alexandrovna (Sonya) his daughter from a previous marriage Voynitskaya Maria Vasilievna: Widow, mother of Professor’s first wife Voynitsky Iván Petrovich (Vanya): Her son Astrov Mikhail Lvovich: Doctor Telegin Iliya Iliyich: house servant Marina: Old nanny Worker/Servant

Transliteration: For this translation I am using the National Geographic Border System. The Russian version of Uncle Vanya that is being translated here is part of a compilation of Chekhov’s plays from the Bradda Books LTD. This primary source is a scholarly version of this play and was a wonderful first source for this translation. In the following translation, some words are omitted or added. This is not a literal translation; not all words will have a literal English equivalent. The following translation focuses on the accuracy of the meaning, mood, and themes in the text rather than exact word translation. This translation is a modernization of the original Russian as well as an adaptation to modern English rather than a classical English, as it would have been translated when it was first written.

Act One

The scene takes place in Serebryakov’s estate, in the garden. One can see part of the garden and the terrace. Table underneath a maple tree; the table is set for tea. Bench, chairs; on one of the benches is a guitar. Not far away from the table are swings. It’s about 3 pm, overcast. (Old lady, sits by the tea kettle, knitting a sock; and Astrov is walking around nearby.) Marina: Eat, my dear. (Pours him some tea.) (Takes the cup reluctantly.) Astrov: I don’t want anything. Marina: Maybe you want some vodka? Astrov: No, I don’t drink vodka every day. Maybe that’s the problem. (Pause) Dear nanny, how long has it been that we have known each other? Marina: (Thinks about it for a minute) How long? Oh Lord, let me remember. You came to this part of the country when Vera Petrovna was still alive, Sonya’s mother. You came here for two winters, when she was here. Well, that means, about eleven years have gone by, or maybe even more. Astrov: Have I changed much since then? Marina: A lot. You used to be younger back then, handsome, but now you are getting old. Not as handsome as you were but what can I say? Plus you drink more now. Astrov: Yes, in ten years I have become a different man. You know why? I work too much. From dusk till dawn I am on my feet, I don’t know how to rest. At night I lay under my covers and I am scared that I will be dragged out of bed to see a patient. For the whole time I have known you, I have not had a single day off. Why wouldn’t I age? In any case, life itself is rather boring, silly, and stupid. Life just keeps passing by. All around you, you see idiots. They are everywhere; live with them for one, two years and little by little, you, yourself, become an idiot without even knowing it. Inescapable fate. My mustache has grown a lot, stupid mustache. I have become an imbecile, but I have not become stupid. No, thank God, my mind is still here, but my emotions are dull. I don’t want anything, I don’t need anything, I don’t even love anyone. Well I love you, but only you. (Kisses her forehead.) When I was young, I had a nanny who was a lot like you. Marina: Maybe, you would like to eat something?

Astrov: No. During the great famine, during the third week I went to Malitzkoe for the epidemic. There was a case of typhoid fever spreading. In the houses people were everywhere. Dirt, awful stench, smoke, farm animals on the floor, right next to the sick. The piglets were right there with everyone. I spent the whole day there, I did not sit once, did not eat or drink anything all day, and then I came home, and they still would not let me rest. They brought a man from the railroad, I put him on the table to perform an operation on him, and he decided to die under chloroform on my watch. And completely out of no where my emotions rose up, and I felt guilty, as if I killed him on purpose. I sat down, closed my eyes and sat there thinking about the people that will live after us. About two hundred years after us, the people for whom we are building the road right now, will they remember us with a kind word? Dear nanny, they won’t remember us. Marina: People won’t remember us, but God will. Astrov: Well said, thank you for your kind words. Voynitsky “Vanya” enters. He comes from the house. He took a nap after breakfast and now looks rested but unkempt. Sits at the end of the table, fixes his tie. Vanya: Yes… (Pause) Yes. Astrov: Did you sleep well? Vanya: Yes, very well. Since the professor and his wife moved here, life has turned upside down. I sleep when I am not supposed to, for breakfast and dinner I eat random pastries, drink wine. It’s incredibly unhealthy. Before I did not have a free minute, Sonya and I worked all the time, bless her heart. Now she works alone, and I sleep, eat, drink… terrible. Marina: (Shakes her head) There is no order! Professor gets up at noon, but the tea kettle has been boiling since morning, keeps waiting for him. Before the professor came to live here we always had lunch around one o’clock, how people do it, but with them we eat around seven pm. At night professor reads, writes, and then around two am, I get a call. What’s the matter dear? … Tea!...I have to wake up people in the house because he wants tea at two am! No order! Astrov: How long are they going to live here? Vanya: (Whistles) A hundred years. The professor has decided to settle here. Marina: Even now, the tea kettle has been on the table for two hours and they left on a walk. Vanya: They are coming back. Here they come. Don’t worry.

Voices are heard in the distance, returning from their walk. Serebryakov (the professor), Yelena Andreevna, Sonya, and Telegin enter. Serebryakov: Wonderful, wonderful… beautiful scenery. Telegin: Fantastic, your honor. Sonya: We are going to go to the forest tomorrow, right, father? Would you like to? Vanya: Dear guests, let’s have some tea! Serebryakov: My friends, please send the tea into my study. I need to work today. Sonya: You would really enjoy going to the forest. Elena, Professor, and Sonya walk into the house; Telegin walks over to the table and sits next to Marina. Vanya: It’s hot and humid, but our great professor is bundled up, with rain boots, and an umbrella and gloves. Astrov: Looks like he is taking care of himself. Vanya: She is so beautiful! So beautiful! In my whole life I have never seen anyone so beautiful. Telegin: Whether I am riding in the field, Marina Timofeevna, or walking in the garden, or looking at a table, I experience absolute happiness. The weather is brilliant, the birds are singing, we all live in this world in agreement. What else do we need! I am forever grateful. (Takes the tea and drinks it.) Vanya: (In a dreamy haze) Those eyes… amazing woman. Astrov: Tell us a story, Ivan Petrovich. Vanya: (Uninterested) What do you want me to tell you? Astrov: Anything new? Vanya: Nothing. Everything is old, as always. I am the same as I have been, maybe worse since I have become lazy, I don’t do anything, but complain like a grumpy old man. My mother keeps going on about the women’s emancipation: with her right eye she is staring at the grave, but with her left, she looks for a reason to live in her books. Astrov: What about the professor? Vanya: The professor sits in his office, and keeps writing. Exercising his mind, wrinkles on his forehead, keeps writing ideas, all the time, but never gets any praise, no one praises his work, all he does is just waste paper. He should write his autobiography. What a brilliant

22 idea! A professor who has been let go, an old man, a smart asshole… typhus, arthritis, and migraines he gets from jealousy and greed. His liver has failed…He keeps living on the estate of his first wife, where he lives, by the way against his will, because he cannot afford to live in the city. Keeps complaining about his unhappiness, but in reality, he is incredibly happy. (Nervously adds) Just imagine what a lucky guy. The son of a simple, seminary student, he has earned an education, worked in the field, became an important man, assistant to the senator. All of this does not matter. But take this for example. He, for the last twenty- five years has been reading and writing about fine art, but he understands nothing about fine art. Twenty-five years he has been regurgitating other people’s ideas about realism, naturalism: for twenty-five years he has been writing about what educators have already written about, what they already know and that stupid, uneducated people don’t care about. That means for the last twenty-five years he has been doing absolutely nothing of importance! And at the same time, what self-esteem, what demands! He resigned, and no one important knows him, no one remembers him, nor cares about him. That means for twenty- five years he has occupied a place that does not belong to him. But look, he comes as if he is a demigod. Astrov: Well, looks like someone is jealous. Vanya: Yes, I am jealous. And to top it off women love him! No Don Juan has had such success with women. His first wife, my sister, amazing, delicate creature, pure, just like the blue sky, she was so grateful and selfless. She had more men pursuing her, more suitors, than he had students. She loved him so, the way only a pure angel can love, love as pure as the creatures themselves. My mother, his mother in-law, still adores him, and still he tells her horrible stories. His second wife, beautiful, smart, you just saw her, married him, when he was already old, gave him her youth, beauty, freedom. And why? What for? Astrov: Is she faithful to the professor? Vanya: Unfortunately, she is. Astrov: Why unfortunately? Vanya: Because this faithfulness is false from the beginning to end. There is a lot of rhetoric in it, but no logic. To be unfaithful to a husband, who one cannot stand, that is immoral, I understand that, but to try to put down, shut down, youth and feelings of life, is not that also immoral?

Telegin: (With sadness in his voice) Vanya, I don’t like when you speak like this. I believe that people who cheat on their husbands or wives are disloyal people by nature. If they can cheat on their spouses, well that means that they can cheat on their country as well. Vanya: (Discouraged) Shut your trap, Waffle! Telegin: Let me speak, Vanya. My wife ran away with her lover the day after our wedding. She did not like the way I looked. After she left me like that, I did not break my promise. I still love her, and remain faithful to her to this day. I help her as much as I can and I gave my inheritance, my wealth for the upbringing of her daughters, the ones she is raising with her lover. I might have lost my happiness, but I still have my dignity. And she, her youth is gone, her beauty has withered with the laws of nature, her lover has passed away… what else does she have left? Enter Sonya, Elena. A bit after them follows Maria with a book. She sits down and keeps reading, sitting on the swings. Sonya: (Quickly addresses the nanny) Over here, nanny dearest. Some strange men are outside asking questions. Go talk to them and I will serve the tea. (Pours the tea) Astrov: I came to see your husband. You wrote that he was terribly ill, rheumatism and something else, but as it turns out he is quite healthy. Yelena: Last night he was depressed and had a fit and a fever, complained about pain in his feet, and today nothing is bothering him. Astrov: But I made an effort to get here in a hurry. Well, no problem… it’s not the first time, but at least I will stay here at your place until tomorrow, and will get some sleep and rest. Sonya: That’s wonderful. This is so rare, for you to spend the night with us. I would guess you have not eaten? Astrov: No, definitely have not eaten. Sonya: Well, perfect timing. You are going to eat diner here. We usually eat dinner around seven pm. (Drinks the tea) Oh, the tea is so cold. Telegin: The tea has gone cold, due to the temperature drop in the water. Yelena: Don’t worry about it, Ivan Ivanovich, we can drink the cold one. Sonya: What’s the matter, grandmother? Maria: I forgot to tell Alexander, completely forgot, oh my memory…Today I received a letter from Kharkov from Pavel Alekseevich… he has sent his new pamphlet.

Astrov: Is it interesting? Maria: Yes, it’s interesting, but it’s rather strange, he is refuting the very idea that seven years ago he was defending. Terrible. Vanya: It’s not terrible. Keep drinking your tea, mother. Maria: But I want to speak. Why are you shutting me up? Vanya: We have been talking for fifty years already, and we keep talking, discussing, and reading the pamphlets. It’s time to stop. Maria: For some strange reason it bothers you when I talk. Forgive me, but since last year you have changed so much that I barely recognize you… You used to be a person with certain ideologies, principles, an overall happy person. Vanya: Oh yes, but of course! I used to be a happy person. Now I am forty-seven years old. Until last year, I purposely tried to cloud my eyes as you all do, with these academics, knowledge, so I would not have to face the real world, and I thought doing that was right. And now, if you only knew what I know I don’t sleep a wink at night from sadness, it drives me crazy because I have foolishly wasted my time when I could have had everything in life, and now I cannot have any of it because I am too old. Sonya: Uncle Vanya, this is boring. Maria: (Directs her attention to her son.) It seems as if you are blaming your problems on others, but we are not to blame, only you are. You have forgotten that your convictions by themselves are nothing but empty words. You needed to do something, you need to be productive. Vanya: Be productive? Not everyone can be a perpetual motion machine, like your beloved professor. Maria: What exactly are you trying to say by that? Sonya: (Pleading) Grandmother, Uncle Vanya, I beg you! Vanya: I will be quiet, I am silent, I give my apologies. (Pause) Yelena: Today is a very nice day… not too hot. (Pause) Vanya: With weather like this, it is a great day to hang yourself. Telegin is tuning the guitar, Marina is walking around the house, calling for hens and chicks. Marina: Here, here, here.

Sonya: Who are you calling? Marina: Mother hen left with her chicks. Hope the crows won’t get them. I am trying to call them back. (Exits) Worker: Is the doctor here? Mikhail Lvovich, your ride is here. Astrov: From where? Worker: From the factory. Astrov: Thank you! (To the family but saddened) As it turns out I must go. (Searches for his cap with his eyes) What a shame… damn it. Sonya: This really is disappointing. Please come back from the factory and have dinner with us. Astrov: No, it will be too late at that point. What else to do… nothing. You know what, on the other hand, bring me a shot of vodka for the road. It’s been a pleasure, dear friends. Maybe if sometime you could come visit me, Yelena Andreevna with Sophia Aleksandrovna? I would be delighted. I own a small piece of property and if you are interested, I have a botanical garden and a green house. Next to me are private forests. The forester is old, always ill, so I guess that I am the one taking care of the forest. Yelena: We already talked about how much you love the forest. Of course I am sure it brings a great deal of good, but are you sure it does not get in the way of your true calling… you are a doctor, remember? Astrov: Only God knows what our true calling is. Yelena: Interesting. Astrov: Yes, very interesting. Vanya: (Ironically) Oh yes, very. Yelena: You are still a young man, you look like you are thirty-six, thirty-seven years old…and the forest is not as interesting as you say. There is a forest and it’s just that, a forest. I think it’s all the same. Sonya: No, this is incredibly interesting. Mikhail Lvovich plants new forests every year; he already received a bronze medal and a diploma. He works so hard, so the old forest won’t be extinct and ruined. If you take the time to listen to him, then you would agree with him completely. He describes how forests decorate the earth, how the trees and forests teach

26 people to understand wonder in the world and allow people to have the most amazing moods and emotions. Forests relax harsher climates. In countries where the climate is warmer, less energy is used to fight the weather conditions. That is why people there are nicer and kinder. People in warmer climates are kind and nice and beautiful, have more emotions, they speak articulately and have grand gestures. They allow science and art to flourish, their philosophy is not tainted, and their approach to women is exquisite, which of course women love. Vanya: (Laughs) Bravo, bravo, all this is lovely, but I am not convinced. (Turns to Astrov) Allow me, my friend, to keep burning wood in stoves, and building sheds from the trees. Astrov: You can heat your stove using turf, and build you shed out of bricks. I will allow that it’s necessary to cut down trees, out of necessity, but why make them extinct? Russian forests shiver under the axe. Trillions of trees are cut down, leaving the animals without shelter, and the birds without homes, the rivers run dry, the most stunning scenery that has ever been created disappears before our eyes. All because of lazy people who don’t have the clever idea to bend over and grab some turf and use the land, the soil. Would not you agree, Yelena? One would need to be an ignorant monster to burn such beauty in their stoves and destroy the things we cannot create. Humans have been gifted with minds and with artistic abilities, so we could multiply what we have already been given to us, but until now, people have kept destroying and not recreate. Forests are depleting, the rivers are becoming shallow as time goes by, animals are relocating, the climate is ruined, and with every day, our earth gets empty and ugly. For example, Vanya, you are looking at me with an ironic face and everything that I am saying you think is silly, and perhaps in reality all this is a bit silly and mystical. But when I am walking through our forests, the ones I have helped to rescue from getting cut down, that’s when I can hear the sound of my young forest in the wind, planted with my bare hands, then I know that the climate might be slightly affected by me, and if in a thousand years people will be happy, then maybe perhaps I will be to blame for that. When I plant a birch tree and I see how it begins to blossom and turns green and move with the wind, my soul fills with pride and I…But enough about that, it’s time for me to go. Perhaps all this is mere ridiculousness after all. It’s been a pleasure seeing you all. (Walks toward the house.) Sonya: (Takes him by the hand and walks with him.) When will you return to us again? Astrov: I am not sure.

Sonya: Come back in another month? Astrov and Sonya enter the house. Maria and Telegin stay by the table. Elena and Vanya walk towards the terrace. Yelena: You, Ivan Petrovich, you were awful. Did you really need to bother Maria Vasilievna, and talk about the perpetual motion machine? And earlier today you were arguing with Alexander. What is the matter with you? Vanya: I cannot help it if I hate him. Yelena: Hating Alexander is pointless, he is like everyone else. No worse than you. Vanya: If you could only see your face and your gestures, how bored you are with life. Oh, what boredom! Yelena: Well, yes, it’s boring. Everyone is angry with my husband, and everyone looks at me with pity: what a sad girl, she has an old husband. All those looks are directed at me, but I do understand him! It’s just as Astrov said, all of us destroy the forests without a reason, and soon enough the earth won’t have anything left. In the same manner, you destroy people, and soon, thanks to you, there won’t be any truth, honesty, purity and selflessness left on this earth. Why cannot you be civil to a woman who is not yours? Because, as the doctor said, we all have a demon inside of us who seeks to destroy. You are not sad about the forests, birds, and women. Nothing moves you. Vanya: I don’t like this philosophy. (Pause) Yelena: The doctor looks tired and nervous. Rather interesting look on his face, I must say. Sonya apparently likes him. She is in love with him and I understand her. He has been here three times since I have been here, but I am shy and I have never had a real conversation with him, have not shown him kindness in that way. He must have thought that I am mean and rude. I guess, Ivan Petrovich, that is why we are such great friends, because we are both boring and complain a lot. Don’t look at me that way you know I don’t like it. Vanya: Can I possibly look at you any other way, when I am in love with you? You are my happiness, my life, and my youth. I know my chances at being with being with you are nonexistent, I don’t ask for anything, but let me at least look at you, and hear your voice. Yelena: Be quiet, someone will hear you! Both walk toward the house.

Vanya: Please allow me to talk about my love; don’t send me away. That alone will bring me all the happiness I need. Yelena: This is ridiculous! Both walk into the house. Telegin is playing the guitar, Maria is writing something on the margins of the pamphlets. Curtain.

Act Two

Dinning room in Serebryakov’ house. Night time. Hammering sound comes from stage left. Serebryakov is sitting next to an open window, sleeping. Yelena is sitting next to him, also sleeping. Serebryakov: (Wakes up) Who is here? Sonya, is that you? Yelena: It’s me. Serebryakov: You, Yelena… This pain is awful, I can’t handle it. Yelena: Your throw fell on the floor. (Covers his feet with a throw) I am going to close the window, Alexander. Serebryakov: No, it’s stuffy. I fell asleep and I had a dream that my left leg was not mine but someone else’s. Woke up with horrible pain. It’s not gout, I am sure it’s rheumatism. What time is it? Yelena: Almost one o’clock in the morning. (Pause) Serebryakov: In the morning, will you look for Batyushkov in the library? I think we have his works. Yelena: What? Serebryakov: See if we have Batyushkov. I remember that we had his complete works. Why is it so hard for me to breathe? Yelena: You are tired, you have not slept for two nights. Serebryakov: I heard that Turgenev developed angina pectoris from his gout. I am sure that will happen to me also. Damn it, this old age is disgusting. It can all go to hell. Since I have gotten older I have become disgusted with myself. I am sure everyone around me must be repulsed just by looking at me. (Yelena walks away from him and sits farther away.) Yelena: You talk about getting older, as if we are all to blame that you are getting older. Serebryakov: You are the one who is most disgusted with me. Of course you are right. I am not stupid, I understand. You are young, healthy, beautiful, want to live your life, and I am an old man, almost a corpse. Well, what’s there to do? As if I don’t understand. It’s completely ridiculous that I am still alive. But don’t worry, be a bit patient, I will soon relieve every one; I am not going to be able to carry on like this for much longer. Yelena: I cannot handle this, please be quiet.

Serebryakov: So it turns out that because of me, everyone is exhausted. I ruined their youth and I am the only one who is enjoying my life! Of course I am! Yelena: Be quiet! You are exhausting. Serebryakov: I am torturing everyone, of course! Yelena: This is unbearable. (Speaking through her tears) Tell me what you want from me! Serebryakov: Nothing. Yelena: Then be quiet, I am begging you. Serebryakov: What an interesting development. Ivan Petrovich can say something or that old idiot, Maria Vasilievna, will start talking and it’s fine, everyone listens, but I say one word, and everyone is unhappy. Even my voice is disgusting to people. Well, maybe I am repulsive, I am self-centered, I am a despot, but it is possible that in my old age I don’t have any right to be self-centered? Have I not earned the right to be selfish? So I am asking, do I really not have the right to have a peaceful old age, have people pay attention to me? Yelena: No one is taking your rights away from you. The wind is picking up, I am going to close the window. (Closes the window) It’s going to rain. Again, no one is taking your rights away from you. Serebryakov: My whole life I have worked for academia, have gotten used to my job, to my audience, to my respectable colleagues, and then all of a sudden I find myself in this situation. Every day I see the same stupid people, have to listen to their stupid conversations. I want to live, I love success, love being known, being important, I love the sound of life, but here I feel like I am in exile. Every minute I long for the past, I watch other people’s victories and successes, but most of all I sit here afraid of death. I cannot do it any more; I don’t have any more strength! On top of it all, people don’t want to forgive me for getting old. Yelena: Wait, don’t be so hasty, in five or six years I am going to be old. (Sonya enters) Sonya: Father, you have sent for Dr. Astrov, but when he came you refused to see him. That’s not nice; you bothered him for no reason. Serebryakov: What do I care about him? He understands as much about medicine as I do about astronomy. Sonya: Well, we certainly cannot ask for the whole medical department to come here because of your illness.

Serebryakov: I am not talking to that fool. Sonya: Do what you like (sits down), I don’t care. Yelena: One o’clock in the morning. Serebryakov: It’s stuffy in here, Sonya. Will you give me the drops that are on the table. Sonya: One second. Serebryakov: It’s not those. I can’t ask for anything around here! Sonya: Stop complaining. Maybe some people like how you complain, but spare me, please! I don’t like it, I don’t have time for this right now, and I have to get up early in the morning tomorrow. Vanya enters in a bathrobe with a candle. Vanya: It looks stormy outside. Sonya and Yelena, please go to bed, I have come to relieve you both. Serebryakov: No, no, don’t leave me with him; he will talk my ear off. Vanya: The ladies need their rest; this is their second night not sleeping. Serebryakov: They should leave and go to bed, but you should also leave. Thank you very much, but I beg you. For our old friendship that we used to have, don’t argue with me, we can talk later. Vanya: Our old friendship… old? Sonya: Quiet, Uncle Vanya! Serebryakov: My dear, please don’t leave me with him, he will talk my ear off. Vanya: This is becoming rather funny. (Enters Marina with a candle.) Sonya: (Talks to the nanny) You should go to bed, it’s getting late. Marina: The tea kettle is not put away, the table is not cleared, it’s not so easy to go to bed when things are not done. Serebryakov: Look, everyone is up, not sleeping worrying themselves. I am the only one who is enjoying life. Marina: What is it, my dear? Are you in pain? My legs keep hurting and hurting. You have had this illness for a while now. Your first wife, Sonya’s mother, would be up all night worrying about you so much. She truly did love you. Young people are the same as old folks, people just want someone to feel sorry for us, to nurture us, but no one pities the elderly.

Let’s get you in bed. Let’s go, sweetheart. I am going to bring you some tea and make sure your feet are warm again, and say a prayer for you as well. Serebryakov: (Touched) Let’s go, Marina. Marina: My legs keep hurting and hurting. Vera Petrovna used to get very upset and sit and cry… Sonya, you were still very young back then and silly… Anyways, let’s go, your grace, let’s go. (Serebryakov, Sonya and Marina exit.) Yelena: I am so tired of him. I am barely standing on my feet. Vanya: At least you are with him, but I am by myself. This is the third night I cannot sleep. Yelena: This house is not peaceful. Your mother hates everything, besides her pamphlets and the professor. Sonya is angry at her father; she is also mad at me and has not spoken to me in two weeks. You hate my husband, and in turn despise your mother because she likes him. I am so irritated and today alone, I think I have begun to cry at least twenty times. This house is not peaceful at all. Vanya: Well, let’s leave it at that. Yelena: You, Ivan Petrovich, you are educated and smart, and it would seem that you would understand the world is dying not because of criminals, but because of jealousy and hatred, from all these little problems. You should focus on bringing people together, helping them make peace instead of instigating the opposite. Vanya: Why don’t you help me make peace with myself, first of all, my dear? (Takes her hand) Yelena: Leave me alone! (Pulls her hand away from him) Go away! Vanya: In a couple of minutes the rain will come and wash the leaves, and everything in nature will be refreshed and will breathe easier. I will be the only one who will not be refreshed by the rain. Night and day, I sit around and think that perhaps my life is lost forever, with no second chances. The past is gone; it’s spent on the frivolities of life, with nothing left. That is my life and my love, what am I to do with them? My feelings are dying for no reason, like the sun’s rays that have fallen in a cave. I am deteriorating. Yelena: When you tell me how much you love me, I become dumb and don’t know how to respond. I am sorry but I cannot tell you anything in return (Wants to leave) Good night.

Vanya: (Blocks her way.) If you only knew how I suffer from just the thought that in this very house another life is perishing and that life is yours. What are you waiting for? What ridiculous philosophy is stopping you? Please understand, please. Yelena: (Stares at him in amazement.) Ivan Petrovich, you are drunk! Vanya: Possible, very possible. Yelena: Where is the doctor? Vanya: He is over there, spending the night in my quarters. Possible, very possible. Anything is possible. Yelena: Did you drink today? What was the occasion? Vanya: Drinking is my life now, don’t bother me about it, Yelena. Yelena: You never used to drink before, and you did not talk this much. Go to bed, you are boring me. Vanya: Oh my dear, cherished one. Yelena: Leave me alone, this is becoming disgusting. (Leaves) Vanya: She left. Ten years ago, I used to meet her at my late sister’s. She was seventeen years old and I was thirty seven. Why didn’t I fall in love with her back then and propose to her? That would have been so possible. She would have been my life right now. Well… we would have both awakened by the thunder, she would have gotten scared by the lightning, I would hold her in my arms and whisper to her, “Don’t be afraid, I am here.” Oh, what wonderful thoughts, they are so wonderful, it’s making me laugh. But oh well, my thoughts are getting all tangled up in my head. Why am I old? Why is it she does not understand me? This rhetoric is like lazy morals. They are passionate, these thoughts about the end of the world. I don’t like any of this. I am betrayed. I used to admire this professor, this small pitiful professor. I used to work so hard for him. Sonya and I used to squeeze the last drop from this household. We were sales people, traded sunflower oil, peas, farmers’ cheese but we would not have any for ourselves, we would collect thousands of rubles penny by penny and send him the money. I used to be proud of him and his studies, I lived and breathed him. Anything he wrote, he said seemed genius. But now, dear God! Now he is retired and we see the fruits of all his work. After him there won’t be anything left to show how hard he worked or what he did. He is completely unknown, he is nothing. I have been blind, now I see how blind I was.

(Astrov enters with no jacket on, no vest, no tie: he is rather happy. Following him is Telegin with his guitar.) Astrov: Play! Telegin: Everyone is sleeping. Astrov: Play! (Looks at Vanya) You are here alone, the ladies left. Thunder woke me up. This is a good rain storm. What time is it? Vanya: Who the hell knows? Astrov: I thought I heard Yelena’s voice. Vanya: She was just here. Astrov: What a brilliant woman! (Looks at the table) Look at all this medicine. There are so many prescriptions here. From Kharkov, from Moscow, and Tula, he has bothered every city with his illness. Is he sick or is he pretending? Vanya: He is sick. Astrov: Why are you so gloomy today, so sad? You feel sorry for the professor? Vanya: Leave me alone. Astrov: Or maybe you have fallen in love with his wife? Vanya: She is my friend. Astrov: Already? Vanya: What do you mean by “already”? Astrov: Women can be friends with men in only one situation: first they are acquaintances, then they are lovers, and finally they are friends. Vanya: What a stupid philosophy. Astrov: What? You see I am also drunk. Normally, I get drunk like this once a month. When I get to this point I become so rude and inconsiderate, and then I don’t care about anything. I perform the most difficult surgeries and I perform them flawlessly. I draw up the most elaborate plans for the future, and at that moment I don’t feel like I am stupid, but I feel like I am bringing this world a great deal of good, a great deal! And at the same time, I have my own personal philosophical system in place, and all of you, everyone seem like such small bugs compared to me. Waffle, keep playing. Telegin: Dear friend, I would be glad to play with my whole heart, but please understand, the house is asleep.

Astrov: Keep playing! I need another drink. Let’s walk over here, there is some cognac here. When the sun rises, I will go to my place. You coming? (Sees Sonya) Excuse me, I don’t have my tie. (Quickly leaves, Telegin follows him.) Sonya: Uncle Vanya, did you get drunk again with the doctor? I am glad you two are friends. He is always like this, but what’s your reason? At your age, getting drunk like this is not good. Vanya: Age has nothing to do with it. When one does not have a life, one lives by imagination. It’s better than nothing. Sonya: Our wheat is all cut down, it’s been raining every day, everything is rotting, and you are bothering yourself with imagination. You have completely stopped helping with the work. I am working by myself, so tired all the time. (Afraid) Uncle, you are tearing up! Vanya: What tears? Nothing here, that’s ridiculous. You looked at me just now the way your mother used to look at me. My dear (Kisses her face and hands), my dear sister, dear sister… Where is she now? If she only knew! If she only knew! Sonya: What, Uncle, if she only knew what? Vanya: It’s difficult, not good…nothing, will talk later, nothing, I am leaving. (Leaves) Sonya: (Knocks on the door.) Mikhail Lvovich, are you awake? Can you come here for a minute? Astrov: (Behind the door) One minute! (Enters a bit later, he is now dressed in a coat and a tie.) What would you like? Sonya: You are fine to keep drinking by yourself, if that does not disgust you, but I beg you, don’t give my uncle anything to drink. It’s bad for him. Astrov: Very well. We won’t drink any more. (Pause) I am leaving to go back home right now. It’s decided and done, by the time they get the carriage ready it will be sunrise. Sonya: It’s raining right now, why don’t you wait until morning? Astrov: Storm is going past us; it will only get us a little bit. I am going to go, and please don’t invite me to come see your father. I keep telling him it’s gout, and he keeps telling me it’s arthritis. I keep asking him to lie down, and he keeps sitting. And today he did not even come out to talk to me. Sonya: He is so spoiled. (Looking for something in the cabinet.) Would you like something to snack on before you go?

Astrov: Why not? Thank you. Sonya: I like having snacks in the middle of the night. There is something here in the pantry. They keep saying that when he was young he was very popular with the ladies. Those ladies have completely spoiled him. Here, have some cheese. (Both are standing by the cabinet, eating.) Astrov: I did not eat anything today, just drank. Your father has a difficult personality. (He gets out a bottle out of the cabinet) May I? (Takes a shot) No one is here, and I feel like I can speak frankly. You know, it seems that in your house I would not have been able to live for a month. I would suffocate in this atmosphere, in such thick air. Your father, who has completely submerged himself in his illness and his books, your uncle, who is completely fixated on his problems, your grandmother, and then your stepmother… Sonya: What about my stepmother? Astrov: Human beings have to have amazing qualities on every level, in their faces, and in their clothes, their souls, and their thoughts. She is wonderful, no one is arguing that, but she only exists. She sleeps, walks, blinds every one with her beauty – but nothing else. She does not have any responsibilities. People work for her, is not that so? Life that is a constant celebration can’t be a pure one. (Pause) Maybe, it’s possible that I am taking this all too personally. I am not happy with life. Similar to your uncle Vanya, both of us are becoming old, bitter men. Sonya: You are not happy with life? Astrov: I love life in general, but our life, this tiresome, Russian life I can’t stand, I hate it with all my heart. In my personal life, there is absolutely nothing good. You know when there is a dark night that creeps over the forest, and in that moment you can see a light somewhere in the distance and you stop noticing how tired and exhausted you are, and the thorns that are hitting your face don’t seem to hurt as bad? I work, like no one else, I suffer and struggle like no one I have ever met, but unfortunately I don’t have that light in the distance that allows me to keep going. I don’t see anything for myself any more, I don’t like people, and it’s been a long time since I have loved any one. Sonya: No one? Astrov: No one. I only feel slight love towards your nanny, and that is based on old memories. Peasants are very interesting, they are unkempt, undeveloped, live dirty, but try to

37 keep up appearances in the intelligent world. And in the intelligent world, people are tiresome. All of our old, good friends, are shallow, they don’t know how to feel and don’t see anything past their nose. Bottom line, they are just stupid. And those who are smarter and more developed are more emotional, eaten up by the analysis of life and their own reflections. They make assumptions about people, having researched their symptoms, and they conclude this person is crazy, and that one is emotionally distraught. When they don’t know what to say, then they just say that person is weird and strange, very strange. I love the forest, it’s strange, but a free relationship between people and nature does not exist anymore, it’s no longer possible, it does not exist. (Reaches for the bottle.) Sonya: (Gets in his way.) No, I beg you, please don’t drink any more. Astrov: Why not? Sonya: It’s so unbecoming. You are attractive, you have such a gentle voice…More than that, you are unlike anyone I know, you are wonderful. So why would you want to be like everyone else, to be an ordinary person who drinks and plays cards? Please don’t do that, I beg you. You always say that people don’t create but destroy what they have been given. So why would you destroy yourself? Please no more, I beg you, don’t drink any more, I beg you! Astrov: (Takes her hand.) I won’t drink any more, I promise. Sonya: Give me your word. Astrov: I give you my word. Sonya: (Takes his hand and holds it.) I am truly grateful. Astrov: I am sober now. You see I am completely sober now, and will stay this way for the rest of my days. (He looks at the clock.) Alright, then we will continue. I was saying that my time has passed; it’s too late for me. I am getting old, work too much, have changed, have shut down all my feelings, and it seems that I am not capable of being attached to a person. I don’t love any one, and will not love anyone in the future. The one thing that still affects me is beauty. I am not partial to beauty. I think that maybe if Yelena Andreevna wanted, she would be able to put a right head on my shoulders one day. But that is not love, not attachment. (He covers his face with his hands and shivers.) Sonya: What’s wrong with you?

Astrov: Nothing… During the Great Famine, I had a man die on the table under chlorophorm. Sonya: It’s time to forget about that, let it go. (Pause) Tell me, Mikhail Lvovich, if I had a friend or a younger sister, and if you found out that she… well, maybe, loves you, how would you respond to that? Astrov: (Shrugs his shoulder) I don’t know, I guess I would not feel anything about it. I would let her understand, that I could not possibly love her, and besides that my head is not occupied with that right now. Well if I must go, I should go now. Goodbye my dear. At this rate we won’t be done till morning. (Shakes her hand) I am going to walk through the living room, if you don’t mind; I am afraid your uncle will see me and detain me. (Leaves) Sonya: (Alone) He did not tell me anything. His heart and soul are hidden from me. Then why should I feel so lucky and happy right now? (She laughs from happiness) I told him, you are handsome, respectable; you have such a lovely voice. Was all that for nothing? His voice was shaking, but it was kind at the same time. I can feel him in the air. When I told him about a younger sister, he did not understand. (Twists her hand) Ah, this is so horrible; I am so pitiful and unattractive! This is terrible. I know I am unattractive, I know that. Last Sunday, when we left church, I heard how people were talking about me, and one woman said, “She is kind, has a great heart, but it’s too bad that she is not pretty.” Not pretty… (Yelena Andreevna enters) Yelena: (Opens the window) The storm has passed. The air is so fresh! (Pause) Where is the doctor? Sonya: He left. (Pause) Yelena: Sophie! Sonya: What? Yelena: How long are you going to be mad at me? We have not hurt each other, so why should be we be enemies? Sonya: I wanted to do the same thing! (Hugs her) We should stop being mad at each other. Yelena: That’s wonderful. (Both get a bit emotional.) Sonya: Did father go to bed? Yelena: No, he is sitting in the living room. We have not talked in two weeks, and Lord knows what the reason is. (Notices that the cabinet is open) What is this?

Sonya: Mikhail Lvovich was eating dinner. Yelena: Look here is some wine- let’s have some! Sonya: Let’s! Yelena: Let’s drink from the same glass. (Pours the wine.) That’s better. So now we are friends? Sonya: Friends. (Both keep drinking and hugging, kissing each other.) I wanted to make up with you for a while now. I kept feeling bad about it. (Begins to cry.) Yelena: Why are you crying? Sonya: It’s nothing, just because. Yelena: Alright, ok, ok. (Begins to cry herself.) Look at me, now I am crying. (Pause) You were mad at me because you think I married your father for the money. If you believe in people’s promises, then believe me when I promise you that I married him for love. I got interested in him as an established, educated person. The love was not real, it was fake, but I thought back then that it was real. I am not to blame. You kept on punishing me with your eyes by the way you looked at me, from the day we got married. Sonya: Let’s have peace now, peace, let’s forget about it. Yelena: You should not look at people that way, it does not look good. You must believe people, otherwise life is unbearable. (Pause) Sonya: Please tell me, as friends, are you happy? Yelena: No. Sonya: I knew it. One more question. Tell me honestly, would you want to have a younger husband? Yelena: Look at you with questions. Of course I would want to. (Laughs ) Ask me anything, anything else. Sonya: Do you like the doctor? Yelena: Yes, very much. Sonya: (Laughs) I look silly right now don’t I? You see, he left, but I keep hearing his voice and his footsteps, I keep looking at the dark window, and I keep imagining his face. Let me say what I need to get off my chest. I cannot talk very loud, someone might hear and I am embarrassed. Let’s go to my room, we can talk there. I bet you think I am silly. Please tell me the truth, tell me something about him, anything.

Yelena: What do you want to know? Sonya: He is smart, he can do anything, is capable of anything, he makes people better and plants forests. Yelena: This has nothing to do with medicine or his planting forests. My dear, please understand that the doctor…he is exceptional. Do you know what exceptional means? Courageous, free spirited. He plants a tree and he is already thinking what will come from that tree in a thousand years, he can already imagine people’s happiness from his deed. People like that are very rare; they need to be loved. He drinks, he can be rude sometimes, but is that so bad? A talented person in Russia cannot be without any flaws. Think about it, what kind of a life does this doctor have? He had to go through dirt roads, freezing weather, horrible conditions, the distances between are awfully far away from each other, people are rude, uncivilized, there is need everywhere, disease every where he looks, and the person who works in these conditions, and fights day in and day out, it’s difficult for him to protect himself. And it’s impossible to be to a clean person with no flaws and sober at forty. (Kisses her.) I wish you the best from the bottom of my heart, you deserve to be happy. (Gets up to leave.) I am boring and spoiled. If this was a romance novel, I would be a passerby, a character seen only in passing. Actually, frankly speaking, if I was to think about it, I am so miserable. (Starts walking around on stage) No, there is no more happiness for me on this earth. No, why are you laughing? Sonya: (Laughs while covering her face.) I am so happy, so very happy. Yelena: I want to play something; I will play something right now. Sonya: Please play. (Hugs her.) I cannot sleep, please play something. Yelena: One minute. Your father is not sleeping; when he is sick he gets irritated by music. Go ask him if it would be ok if I played something, go ask. Sonya: One minute, (Leaves, knocking is heard of stage.) Yelena: I have not played in such a long time. I am going to play and cry, and keep crying like a silly girl. (Looks to the widow) Is that you Ephim? (Voice off stage says, “It’s me.”) Yelena: The professor is not feeling well. Sonya: (Returns) No, you cannot play. Curtain.

Act Three

The living room at the Serebryakov’s house. Three doors, to the left, the right and the center. It is day time. Vanya and Sonya are sitting and Yelena is walking around the stage, thinking about something. Vanya: The professor has asked that we all meet here today, in the living room by 1 pm. (Looks at the clock) It’s fifteen minutes till one. He wants to tell something to the world. Yelena: I am sure it’s something important, perhaps a project of some kind. Vanya: He does not have any projects. He writes nonsense, talks about nothing important, and keeps being bitter, nothing else. Sonya: (In a stern tone.) Uncle! Vanya: My apologies. (Looks at Elena.) Look at her. Here she is walking around, swaying from laziness. Very nice! Yelena: All you do, every day is say bitter, angry things. How is it you are not tired of it? (With anguish) I am dying from boredom, don’t know what to do. Sonya: (Shrugs her shoulders.) Nothing to do? All you need to do is have the desire to do something. Yelena: For example? Sonya: Take care of the house, teach, and heal. Anything, when you and father were not here, Uncle Vanya and I would to go to market and sell flour ourselves. Yelena: I don’t know how to do that. It’s not interesting. Women teach in idealistic romance novels, and men heal the sick. I don’t belong in that world, and I don’t know how to do that. Should I one day pick up and start teaching and healing people? Sonya: I don’t understand why one would not want to go teach and heal others. Take some time, and you would get used to it. (Hugs her) Don’t be bored my dear. (Laughs) You are bored, and cannot find your place, but you see boredom as well as celebration are both contagious. Look, Uncle Vanya does not do anything but keeps following you around, like your shadow. I left my chores and have come to see you so we can talk. I have become so lazy, I cannot stand it. Doctor Mikhail Lvovich used to come here rarely, maybe once a month, it was difficult to get him to come here, and now he comes at least every week, he has stopped paying attention to his patients as well as his forests. You must be a witch or something.

Vanya: What are you harping about? (Lively) Well, my dear, wonderful creature, be a good girl. In your veins runs mermaids’ blood, then you should be a mermaid! Allow yourself, if only once in your life, to fall in love soon, with some underwater creature, and then dive with him into the water, so the professor and all of us would just look in awe at what you have done. Yelena: (Angrily) Leave me alone, this is simply cruel. (Tries to leave.) Vanya: (Won’t let her go) Well, well, my joy, forgive me, I am sorry! (Kisses her hand.) Yelena: Even an angel would not have enough patience, would not you agree? Vanya: As a sign of peace and friendship, I will bring a bouquet of roses. I have had them prepared this morning. Fall roses. They are beautiful, sad roses. (Leaves.) Sonya: Fall roses. Beautiful, sad roses. (Both women look at the window.) Yelena: September is already here. How are we going to live here during the winter? (Pause) Where is the doctor? Sonya: He is in Uncle Vanya’s room, writing something. I am glad that Uncle Vanya left, I need to talk to you about something. Yelena: About what? Sonya: About what? (Lays her head on Elena’s chest.) Yelena: Alright, alright (Starts playing with her hair) calm down. Sonya: I am not attractive. Yelena: You have beautiful hair. Sonya: No! (Looks around and sees herself in the mirror.) No, when a woman is not beautiful, people tell her that you have great eyes, or you have beautiful hair. I have loved him for six years now, love him more than I love my own mother, I hear him every minute, I feel him shaking my hand, and I look at the door and wait, and I think that he will come any minute. So you see, I keep coming to you to talk about him. Now he is here every day, but he does not look at me, he does not see me. This so miserable, I don’t have any hope, none what so ever. (In despair) Oh dear Lord, please give me strength. I stayed up praying all night long. I will often walk right up to him, and begin conversations, look in his eyes. I don’t have any will power or pride to control myself. I could not hold it in any longer and told Uncle Vanya that I am in love. All the servants know that I love him, everyone knows. Yelena: Does he?

Sonya: No, he does not even notice me. Yelena: (Thinking, tries to find a way to fix the situation.) He is strange. You know what, let me to talk to him, I will be very careful, I will just hint (Pause) I mean, how long should he be in the dark? Allow me! (Sonya nods that she approves.) Well, that’s wonderful. Either he loves you or he does not, that is not difficult to find out. Don’t get upset, don’t get scared, I will ask him carefully, he won’t even notice what I am asking him. All we need to know is yes or no, and if it’s a no, then he should stop coming here, right? It’s easier when you don’t have to see him. We won’t put this off, I will ask him this minute. He wanted to show me some drawings, go tell him that I am ready to see him. Sonya: (Overcome with emotion.) You will tell me the whole truth? Yelena: Of course I will, I think that the truth, no matter what kind of truth is less scary than not knowing. Trust me, my dear. Sonya: Yes, yes, I will tell him that you want to see his drawings. (Walks away stops by the door.) No, not knowing is better, because at least there is hope. Yelena: What did you say? Sonya: Nothing. (Leaves) Yelena: (Alone) Nothing is worse than when you know someone else’s secret and you cannot help. (Keeps thinking) He is not in love with her, that’s obvious, but why not marry her? She is not beautiful, but for a village doctor, at his age, she would be the perfect wife. She is so kind, nice, and pure. No, that’s not it, that’s wrong. (Pause) I understand this poor girl. In the middle of lonely despair, when, instead of people those who are around are gray blobs, all you hear is rude conversations, all they care about is when they eat, drink, and sleep, and sometimes he comes here, and he does not look like the rest of them, he is attractive, handsome, intelligent, interesting, it seems like in this darkness the bright moon rises when he appears. What would it be like to allow yourself to fall into his arms, into his embrace, to forget everything? It appears that I have personally gotten a bit attached. I am completely bored without him, and I keep smiling when I think about him. Uncle Vanya keeps saying that in my veins runs the blood of a mermaid and that I should allow myself to have freedom once in my life. Well, why not? Maybe that is for the best. I would love to fly away from all of them, away from here, from these sleepy faces, from these conversations, and forget that they all exist on this planet. But I am afraid and shy. My conscience will bother me. He is

44 here every day. I am beginning to realize why he is here I feel completely responsible, I am ready to fall before Sonya’s feet and ask for forgiveness. Astrov: (Enters with drawings.) Good day! (Shakes her hand.) You wanted to see my drawings? Yelena: Yesterday you promised to show me your work. Are you free right now ? Astrov: Of course. (He leaves some maps on the table and hooks them up so they hang.) Where were you born? Yelena: (Helps him) In St. Petersburg. Astrov: Where did you get your education? Yelena: In the conservatory. Astrov: I am sure this is very boring for you. Yelena: Why? I will be honest, I don’t know much about villages, but I have read a lot. Astrov: In this house, I have my own table, in Uncle Vanya’s room. When I get tired to the point of delirium, I leave everything and come here and play with this map and the pictures, for an hour or so. Ivan Petrovich and Sophia count at the desk, and I sit next to them at my table and keep working, painting, and I am warm, happy, and content. I allow myself this luxury not often, maybe once a month. (Shows her the map.) Now look here. This is a picture of our community, the way it looked fifty years ago. Dark and light green paint indicates forests. Half of our community is filled with forests. Where there is a red chain, there are moose and deer. Here, I try to show birds and animals. So many birds, swans, and ducks lived on the lake, they would fly around like a huge cloud. If you notice, besides, the forests, there are other indications of houses, mills. There used to be a lot of wild and farm animals. You can tell that by the blue paint. If you look here, you will see how deep the blue paint is; in this area, every house had at least three horses. (Pause.) And now look a bit lower. Look at the way things were twenty five years ago. Now there is one third of the forest that there used to be. No more deer, but the moose are still there. The green and blue paint is a lot lighter than it used to be, and it keeps going this way. Let’s move on to the third section. A picture of how our community is now, in the present. The green paint is randomly scattered everywhere, but there is not a consistent green paint anywhere unlike the way it used to be: it’s spotty now. Most of the birds, ducks, and swans have disappeared: the old houses, the mills are all gone. In general this picture is constantly

45 changing, becoming depleted. All it would need is about ten to fifteen years to re-grow itself, but there is not enough time. One would say that there are cultural influences; you could say that the old way of living needs to make room for the new way to establish its roots. Yes, I understand that, if in place of the destroyed forests, people would build a highway, railroads, if there were mills and plants, and schools, people would become healthier, wealthier, smarter, but unfortunately there is nothing like that here. There are the same flies, fleas, and swamps, the same illness and disease, poverty, typhus. We are dealing with the destruction of life as we know it. We suffer because of people’s treatment of the nature around them, or the cruelty that the forests and the animals have undergone. When a cold, hungry, sick person, in order to save his own life, so he can save his children, grabs everything in his way, by instinct to quench his hunger, to get warm, he will destroy everything in front of him, without thinking about the future. Almost everything has been ruined, but nothing has been created to give new life. (Looks at her, emotionless.) I can see by your face, that this is not interesting to you. Yelena: You see, I understand so little in these matters. Astrov: You don’t have to understand anything, this information is just interesting. Yelena: To be completely honest, my thoughts are somewhere else. Excuse me, but I must talk to you for a minute about something, but I am rather shy, and don’t know how to start. Astrov: You need to talk me? Yelena: Yes, I must talk to you, but it’s very light hearted, let’s sit down. (They sit) This conversation has to do with a young lady. We need to speak about this as honest people, as good friends would, with no lies. We shall talk and discuss what we need to and then we will forget about it, is that ok? Astrov: Yes. Yelena: Well, this conversation has to do with my stepdaughter, Sonya. Do you like her? Astrov: Yes, I respect her. Yelena: Do you like her as a woman? Astrov: (Hesitantly) No. Yelena: Two more words, and then I am done. You have not noticed anything? Astrov: Nothing.

Yelena: (Takes his hand.) I know you don’t love her, I can tell that in your eyes, She is so miserable, she is suffering, please understand that, and stop coming around here. Astrov: (Gets up) Well my time is up, and it’s time to go. Yelena: Look at this upsetting conversation, I am so upset. I feel like I just carried a thousand tons on my back. Let’s forget about all this, as if we never talked about it, but you should leave. You are a smart man you understand. (Pause) I am all flushed. Astrov: If you would have told me a month or two ago, then I might have thought about it but now. (Shrugs his shoulders.) If she is really suffering, then of course. I simply don’t understand one thing: why did you need to question me? What is in it for you? You are so cunning! Yelena: What do you mean by that? Astrov: Cunning! Let’s assume that Sonya is miserable, I will believe that, but why do you need to interrogate me? (Quick to stop her from interjecting.) Please don’t make that face as if you are surprised, you know full well why I am here every day. Why and for whom I come every day, you are fully aware why I am here. My dear predator, please don’t look at me this way. Yelena: Predator? Again, I simply don’t understand! Astrov: What a beautiful polecat! You need to have conquests. It’s been a month since I stopped doing anything. I forgot everything, I keep looking for you, and you love it, you absolutely adore it. Well, what can I say? I have been defeated, but you already knew this without all the questions. Yelena: You have lost your mind! Astrov: (Laughs through his teeth.) You are very bashful. Yelena: Oh, I am a lot better than you give me credit for. I promise you. (Wants to leave) Astrov: (Stands in her way) I am going to leave today, and won’t return here ever again, but (Takes her hand as he looks around.) where will we continue our meetings? Please tell me quickly, where? People can come in here, please hurry tell me (Passionately) What a beautiful sight. (Looking at her) One kiss, I want to be able to kiss your beautiful hair. Yelena: I promise you. Astrov: (Stops her from talking.) Why promise me anything? Don’t do that. Don’t say extra words. What a beauty you are, what delicate hands. (Kisses her hands.)

Yelena: Please stop this, please leave. (Takes her hand back.) You have forgotten yourself! Astrov: Tell me, tell me now, where will we meet tomorrow? (Takes her by the waist.) You see this is impossible, we must see each other. (Kisses her.) (At this moment Vanya enters with a bouquet of roses and stops in the doorway.) Yelena: (Does not see Vanya) Have mercy, leave me be. (Puts her head on Astrov’s chest.) No… (Tries to leave.) Astrov: (Keeps holding her by her waist.) Come tomorrow to the forests, around two pm… Yes… Will you come? Yelena: (Sees Vanya) Let me go! (Very flustered walks over to the window.) This is terrible! Vanya: (Places the bouquet of roses on the table, takes a handkerchief out for his pocket and dries off his face and neck.) Interesting, very interesting. Astrov: Today, my dear Ivan Petrovich, the weather is wonderful. The morning was cloudy, as if rain clouds were forming, but now it’s sunny. I can truly say that this is been an amazing autumn, and we’ll see what the winter brings. (Rolls his map away in a tube) Unfortunately the days have gotten a lot shorter. (Leaves.) Yelena: (Quickly walks over to Vanya.) Will you try, please to use your influence, so my husband and I can leave today. Did you hear me, today! Vanya: (Drying off his face.) What? Well sure, wonderful. I saw everything Yelena, everything! Yelena: (Nervously) Did you hear me? I must leave this place today! (Sonya, Telegin, Marina, and Professor enter.) Telegin: I don’t feel well, your honor. I have not been feeling well for the last two days. My head is not quite right. Serebryakov: Where is everyone else? I don’t like this house, it’s a labyrinth. Twenty-six huge bedrooms, where everyone goes to their own room and there is no way to find them again. (Rings the bell.) Please invite Maria Vasielievna and Yelena Andreevna to come in here. Yelena: I am here. Serebryakov: Please, everyone, let’s be seated. Sonya: (Looks at Elena nervously.) What did he say? Yelena: Later.

Sonya: Are you shaking? You are so upset! (Looks at her face intently.) I understand, he said that he won’t be here anymore, right? (Pause) Say it: Yes? (Yelena nods to say yes.) Serebryakov: (Addresses Telegin) One is able to deal with being ill and not feeling well, but the one thing I cannot stand and won’t tolerate is living a provincial life style. Living in this village, I feel like I fell off the face of the earth onto a foreign planet. Please, everyone, sit down. Sonya! (She does not hear him, but keeps standing, with her head down.) Sonya. (Pause) She cannot hear me. And you, Marina, sit down. (She sits as she is knitting a sock.) Please everyone please direct your attention and ears to me. (Laughs) Vanya: (Nervously.) Maybe I don’t need to be here. May I leave? Serebryakov: No, you need to be here more than any one. Vanya: What do you want from me? Serebryakov: You, why are you getting so upset? (Pause.) If I have offended you in any way please forgive me. Vanya: Leave that tone of voice, and let’s get to the point. What do you want? (Maria Vacilievna enters.) Serebryakov: Here is our Mama. I may now begin. “I invited you all here to tell you that we are going to have a visit from the general!” Well, any way, all kidding aside, this is a big deal. I invited you all here to ask for your help and guidance, knowing how much you all care, I am counting on your help. I am an educated person, and have always been a stranger to the practical life. I cannot rely on myself and need the help of people who are more practical than I am, like you, Ivan Petrovich, and you, Ilya Iliich, and you, mother. Here is the thing, we all walk under one God. I am old and sick and that is why I must be a good steward of my time and regulate my affairs, mainly my inheritance and my finances because they affect my family. My life is over, I am not thinking about myself, but I have a young wife and a younger daughter. (Pause) I cannot keep living like this in the village. We were not created for the farm, outside the city life. To live in the city, based on the money that we make from this property is not realistic. But we could sell it and cut down the forest. This is extreme, I know, but unfortunately we cannot do it every year, so there needs to be a different plan to make money. We need to find some means that would guarantee us a steady income that would be continuous and financially feasible. I have come up with one idea, and would like to share it with you and hear your opinions on it. Our property does not produce

49 more than about two percent profit. I suggest selling the property. If the money that we get can be turned into our annual percentile profit, then we could get between four to five percent, and I think we might even have a couple extra thousand. Whatever is left would allow us to purchase a house in Finland. Vanya: Wait a minute, I think my hearing is failing me. Please repeat what you just said. Serebryakov: Take the money we would get from selling it, turn the money into a percentage that would bring us profit, and with the remaining money, purchase a house in Finland. Vanya: Not Finland, you also said something else. Serebryakov: I am suggesting selling the property. Vanya: There it is, you want to sell the property. Outstanding! Fabulous idea! And where do you suppose Sonya, her grandmother, and I would go? Serebryakov: We can discuss that in due time, not right away. Vanya: Wait a minute, apparently until now I have not had any clarity what so ever. I guess this whole time I had the idea that this property belonged to Sonya. My late father bought this property and gave it as an inheritance to my sister. I guess I have been so naïve all this time to think that this property was Sonya’s, as her inheritance. Serebryakov: Yes, the property does belong to Sonya. No one is arguing that. Without her permission I would not dare sell it, and in any case, I am trying to do this for her benefit. Vanya: This is unbelievable, completely unbelievable. I have lost my mind or… Maria: Vanya, don’t argue with Alexander. He knows what’s the right or wrong thing to do in this situation. Vanya: Unbelievable, someone give me some water! (Drinks the water) Keep saying whatever you want, whatever you want. Serebryakov: I don’t understand why you are so upset. I am not saying that my idea is flawless. If everyone feels like this is a bad idea, I won’t force it on any one. (Pause) Telegin: (Quietly) Your grace, I respect knowledge and feel great respect for it as well as a sense of connection to it as well. Vanya: Hold on a second, Waffle, we are talking about important things here. Hold on a second. (To Alexander) Why don’t you ask him, if this property was bought from his uncle. Serebryakov: Why do I need to ask? What for?

Vanya: Now you listen to me. This property would not have been bought at all if I did not refuse my part of the inheritance and wanted to contribute that money to Sonya’s inheritance, who I love very much. Besides that, I have been working nonstop for the past ten years to pay off the debt, and I have done just that. Serebryakov: I am regretting having started this conversation. Vanya: This property is clear of all debts and has stayed together all purely because of my hard work and the energy I have put into it. Now that I am old, people are trying to throw me out by my neck! Serebryakov: I don’t understand what you are trying to prove. Vanya: For the last twenty-five years I have been I charge of this property, worked here, sent you money, and in all that time you never once thanked me. This whole time, in my youth, and even now, you paid me a measly five hundred rubles a year. Poor man’s change, that’s what that is, and not once did you think about adding a single ruble to that. Serebryakov: Ivan Petrovich, how was I supposed to have known? I am not a practical person, and don’t understand such things. You could have added as much as you wanted yourself. Vanya: You are asking me why I did not steal from you? How come all of you are not angry with me for not stealing? That would have been only fair and I would not be broke now. Maria: Ivan! Telegin: (Getting upset) Vanya, my friend, stop this, please stop. I am shaking, why ruin such good relations. (Kisses him) Please stop! Vanya: Twenty five years I have lived with my mother, sat inside these four walls. All of our thoughts and emotions and energy all belonged to you alone. During the day, we talked about you, about your work, were so proud of you, and mentioned your name with pride; at night we spent our time reading you magazines and books, the same books I cannot stand now. Telegin: Please stop, stop this, you don’t need to keep going, Vanya, stop it. Serebryakov: (Angrily) I don’t understand what you want! Vanya: For us, you were the epitome of greatness. We knew all your essays by heart. But now my eyes have been opened! I see everything! You write about art, but don’t understand anything about it. All your work that I loved is useless. You did not say anything interesting in any of it.

Serebryakov: Ladies and gentlemen! Please calm him down, for crying out loud, or I am leaving. Yelena: Ivan Petrovich, I am demanding that you be quiet, do you hear me? Vanya: No, I won’t be quiet! (Blocks Alexander’s way out.) I am not done yet! You ruined my life. I did not live, did not live at all. Your existence ruined and destroyed the best years of my life. You are my worst enemy! Telegin: I cannot take this, can’t take this. I am leaving! (Leaves very upset.) Serebryakov: What do you want from me? How dare you talk to me like that? You imbecile, if this property is yours, take it, I don’t need it. Yelena: I am leaving this hell this minute! (Starts yelling.) I cannot take it anymore! Vanya: My life is ruined. I am talented, smart, and courageous. If only I’d had a normal life, I could have been a great person, like Dostoevsky. I am going crazy. My dear mother, I am so ruined, Mother! Maria: (Sternly) Listen to Alexander. Sonya: (Gets down on her knees in front of the nanny and clings on to her.) Nanny! Nanny! Vanya: Mother, what am I supposed to do? No, don’t tell me anything, I know perfectly well what I need to do. (Looks at the professor.) You will forever remember me! (Leaves and goes out through the middle door. Maria follows him.) Serebryakov: Dear ladies and gentlemen, please someone calm him down. Take this crazy person away from me. I cannot live with him in the same house, under the same roof. He lives here, so close to me. He can move to another village, or anywhere, or I will have to leave, but to be in the same house with him, I cannot do that! Yelena: (To her husband) We are going to leave this place today! We must make the arrangements immediately. Serebryakov: What a pitiful person. Sonya: (Still on her knees turns to her father.) You need to be more merciful, father. Uncle Vanya and I are so miserable. You need to be merciful. Remember when you were younger, Uncle Vanya and grandmother used to stay up all night translating books for you, wrote out your papers, all night, all the time. Uncle Vanya and I worked without rest, we were afraid to spend an extra penny on ourselves, and sent you everything we had. We did not even eat

52 bread unless it was necessary. I am not saying the right things right now, but you must understand us, father. You need to be merciful. Yelena: Alexander, I beg you please go talk to him, I beg you! Serebryakov: Fine, I will talk to him. I don’t blame him for anything, I am not mad, but agree with me that his behavior is rather odd. If you insist, I will go see him. (Goes out the middle door.) Yelena: Please be kind with him, calm him down. (Follows him out.) Sonya: Nanny, Nanny! Marina: Don’t worry child, they need to let off some steam and then they will calm down. Sonya: Nanny… Marina: (Petting her head.) You are shivering as if you were frozen. There, there darling, little orphan, God be with you. Want some tea with raspberries? It will help you. Don’t be sad, little child. (At the middle door.) Look how out of control they got, how carried away. There is a shot heard backstage. We hear Yelena scream and Sonya shudders. Serebryakov: (Runs in, shaking from fear.) Grab him, restrain him, he has lost his mind! Yelena: (Trying to take away the gun from him.) Give it to me, give it to me, I am telling you! Vanya: Let me be, Yelena, let me be! (Runs in looking for the professor.) Where is he? Oh, here he is. (Shoots at him. Pause) Did not get him, missed him again! Oh damn, damn. (Drops the gun on the floor and falls into the chair with no strength left.) Yelena: Take me away from here! Take me away from here, or kill me, I don’t care, I just cannot stay here another minute. Vanya: (Full of regret.) What have I done, what have I done! Sonya: Nanny…dear nanny. (Says it very quietly.) Curtain

Act Four

The scene opens in Ivan Petrovich’s bedroom. It is evening. Telegin and Marina are sitting across from each other working on knitting. Telegin: Hurry up, Marina Timofeevna; they might call us in a hurry to say goodbye. They already ordered their horses. Marina: (Tries to work faster.) I have a little bit left. Telegin: They are leaving to go to Kharkov; going to move there they say. Marina: It’s for the best. Telegin: They are all upset at each other. Yelena Andreevna, said “I don’t want to live here another day, let’s leave, let’s leave. We’ll live in Kharkov for a bit, get ourselves settled and come back later, send for our things.” They are leaving in such a hurry. Know what that means, Marina Timofeevna? That means that it’s not destined for them to live here, not their destiny. Marina: Its better this way. They caused such a scene -so awful, how shameful! Telegin: That was an awful display. Marina: Wish my eyes would not have seen any of it. (Pause) Now life will get back to normal, the way it used to be. In morning there will be tea around eight am, lunch will be served around one pm, and in the evening, dinner will be served normally. Everything is going to go back to the way it should be, the way normal people live. It’s been a long time since I have eaten noodles. Telegin: Yes, indeed, it’s been a while since we had any noodles. A long time! This morning, Marina Timofeevna, walking in the village, someone yelled in my direction, “Hey, keep your head up.” That made me so sad. Marina: Don’t pay attention to it. We all look for grace with the good Lord. You are looking for it, Sonya is looking, Vanya is looking, everyone is trying to keep their head up, and now that we all have things to do, no one is sitting around doing nothing. Enough, where is Sonya? Telegin: In the garden. She keeps walking around with the doctor, looking for Ivan Petrovich, afraid that he might end his own life. Marina: Where is his gun? Telegin: I hid it in the basement.

Marina: Sinner. (Laughs) Vanya enters from the garden with Astrov. Vanya: Leave me alone. (Looks at Marina and Telegin.) Get out of here, let me be alone for at least an hour, I cannot stand being guarded. Telegin: Very well, right away, Vanya. (Leaves on his tiptoes, Marina makes a face and follows him.) Vanya: Leave me alone! Astrov: I would love to, I’ve had to leave for a while now, it’s time for me to leave, but I am repeating myself, I am not leaving until you give me what you took from me. Vanya: I did not take anything from you. Astrov: I am being serious, don’t keep me waiting, I had to leave a while ago. Vanya: I did not take anything from you. (Both sit down.) Astrov: Really? Well, if you won’t give it up nicely, I guess we will have to use force. I will tie you up and search you. I am being completely serious. Vanya: Do whatever you want. (Pause) I cannot believe I am such an idiot, to fire twice and miss both times. I will never forgive myself for that. Astrov: If you really needed to shoot something, why did not you just shoot yourself in the forehead? Vanya: (Shrugged his shoulders.) Strange. I attempted to kill someone, but no one is arresting me, no one is turning me into the police. I guess everyone thinks I have gone mad. (With an evil laugh.) I am the crazy one, but not those who have been charmed by the magician’s hand, who hide their indifference, their stupidity, and their personal cruelty. And of course it’s not those who marry old men and then lie to them in front of everyone else. I saw it, I saw how you were hugging her. Astrov: Yes, I was hugging her, what do you care? (Makes a face.) Vanya: No, it’s this earth; it’s crazy for keeping people like you on it. Astrov: Well that’s just dumb. Vanya: Well I guess I am crazy, and cannot be stopped, so I am allowed to make stupid comments.

Astrov: This is a very old joke. You are not crazy, but silly. Before I used to think anyone who was slightly different was crazy and sick, not normal, but now I am under the opinion that the normal state for a person is to be different. You are perfectly normal. Vanya: I am so ashamed, if you only knew how ashamed I am. This sharp pain from being so ashamed is unlike anything I have ever felt before. It’s impossible, what am I supposed to do, what can I do? Astrov: Nothing. Vanya: Give me something! Oh dear God, I am forty-seven years old. Let’s assume that I will live until I am sixty that means I still have thirteen years to go. That’s so long. How am I going to live the next thirteen years? What am I going to do, how will I fill them? But you understand, I am sure you understand, if only there was a way for me to live the rest of my days differently, in a new way. To wake up on a nice clear morning, and feel that life started all over again, that everything in the past is forgotten and had evaporated like the fog. (Starts crying.) To begin a new life. Give me your hand. Tell me how to start a new life, what do I start with? Astrov: (Saddened by the last comment.) Go away. What new life are you talking about? Our destiny in life, yours and mine are fixed, impossible, no hope for us. Vanya: Really? Astrov: I am certain of it. Vanya: Give me something, anything. (Points to his heart.) It burns right here. Astrov: (Starts yelling.) Stop this! Those who are going to live one hundred, two hundred years after us they will hate us because we lived our lives so ridiculously and so tastelessly They might find a way to be happy, but we, we only have one hope left. The hope is that when we are rotting in our graves, ghosts will come and visit us, maybe even nice ones. Yes, brother, in this whole community, there were only two intelligent people, you and me. But in the last ten years life has taken us, has poisoned our blood, and we have become as ridiculous as everyone else. But you better stop changing the subject and give me back what you took from me. Vanya: I did not take anything from you. Astrov: You took a bottle of morphine out of my travel case. (Pause) Listen, if you really want to commit suicide, end it all, go into the forest and shoot yourself, but give me back my

56 morphine or people will start speculating that I gave it to you and that I am responsible for what you do. I mean, is it not enough that I will have to open you up and perform an autopsy on you? You think that’s interesting? Sonya enters. Vanya: Leave me alone! Astrov: (Addressing Sonya.) Sofia Alexandrovna, your Uncle took a bottle of morphine from my briefcase, and is not giving it back to me. Can you please tell him that this is silly? I don’t have time for this, it’s time for me to go. Sonya: Uncle Vanya, did you take the morphine? Astrov: I know he took it, I am sure of it. Sonya: Give it back to him. Why are you frightening us so? Please, Uncle Vanya, give it back. (Starts to cry.) It’s very possible that I am just as sad and miserable as you, but I have not completely given up, I am hanging in there, and I am going to keep hanging on, until my life ends by itself, so you should hang on as well. (Pause) Give it back. (Starts kissing his hands.) My dear, wonderful Uncle, sweetheart, please give it back. Hang in there, just hang in there. Vanya: (Goes over to the desk, take out the bottle from a drawer and gives it to Astrov.) Here, take it. We need to start working right away, we must do something, otherwise I cannot take it, simply cannot take it. Sonya: Yes, yes, of course, we must begin working, as soon as we say goodbye to everyone we will begin working. We have let so many things go. Astrov: (Takes the bottle and puts it away.) Now I can get on my way. Yelena: (Enters) Ivan Petrovich, are you here? We are leaving right now. Go see Alexander, he wants to tell you something. Sonya: Yes, go Uncle, go, come along. You and Papa need to make up, it’s very important. (They leave.) Yelena: I am leaving. (Gives her hand to the doctor.) Goodbye! Astrov: Right now? Yelena: The horses are all ready to go. Astrov: Goodbye. Yelena: Today you promised me that you would leave this place.

Astrov: I remember and will be leaving now. (Pause) Are you afraid? (Takes her by the hand.) Is it that frightening? Yelena: Yes. Astrov: Maybe you could stay, and then tomorrow we could go to my forest. Yelena: No, it’s already decided, that’s why I am able to look at you and be so brave, because the plans to leave are already finalized. I only ask you one thing: think better of me. I would like you to respect me. Astrov: Oh, please stay here, I beg you. Admit to yourself that you have nothing to do in this world, you have no goal in life, you have nothing that you could fill your time with, and sooner or later you will become a slave to your feelings. Would it not be better to have those emotions and desires here with me, rather than somewhere else? It’s so poetical, even the fall is beautiful right now. There are a lot of beautiful forests here and lots of half-standing homes, like in Turgenev’s poetry. Yelena: You are incredibly funny. I am so upset with you, but I will remember you fondly. You are an interesting, original person. We will never see each other again, ever, and in that case why not admit it? I even became a bit interested in you. But now, let’s shake hands and walk away from each other. And, friend, please try to remember me fondly. Astrov: (Shakes her hand) Yes, you should leave… it seems that you are a kind, honest person, but there is also something very strange in your being. You came here with your husband, and everyone who lives or works here gave up all their errands and their work and solely focused on catering to you and your husband. You both have poisoned everyone here with your idleness. I also got bewitched I have not done anything in a month, and during that time people were sick and strangers were using my forests without permission. Where ever you or your husband go, you both bring destruction. I might be wrong, but if you were to stay the desolation that would happen would be tremendous. I would be ruined, and you, too. All would be bad. Then on your way you go! This comedy is now finished! Yelena: (Takes a pencil off his table and hides it very quickly.) This pencil I am taking with me as a keepsake. Astrov: This is so strange. We were friends, and now all of the sudden I will never see you again. That’s the way everything in life works. But while there is no one here, and while

Uncle Vanya has not come back in yet, will you let me give you a goodbye kiss? Yes? (Kisses her cheek) Well now, that’s better. Yelena: (Looks around) I wish you all the best, where ever life takes us. (Hugs him, holds him, and then steps away from him. They stand there rather awkwardly.) It’s time to go. Astrov: You should leave soon. If you have you horses drawn already, then you should get going. Yelena: It seems that people are coming this way. Astrov: It’s over! Vanya, Alexander, Maria, Telegin and Sonya enter. Serebryakov: Let’s not hold on to old things. After everything that has happened, all the emotions, everything I had to go through, I think I could write a book on how to live now. I gladly accept your apologies, and extend my apologies to you as well. Goodbye. (Kisses Vanya three times.) Vanya: You are going to receive the same sum as you used to before. Things are going to go back to the way they used to be. Yelena hugs Sonya. Serebryakov: (Kisses Maria’s hands.) Mama. Maria: (Kisses him back) Alexander, please take another photograph of yourself and send me a picture. You know how much I value you. Telegin: Goodbye your grace. Please don’t forget about us. Serebryakov: (Kisses his daughter) Goodbye, goodbye to everyone. (Shakes Astrov’s hand.) It’s been a pleasure having you in our company, I respect your thoughts and ideas, and your lifestyle, but if you allow this old man to give you one word of correction, you must do something ; it’s time to do something and not be lazy. (Takes a bow as he looks at everyone.) Good day, every one! (Exits, and with him exit Maria and Sonya.) Vanya: (Kisses Elena’s hands) Good bye, good bye, we will never see each other again. (She kisses his head and walks out.) The only two people left are Vanya and Astrov. Astrov: Why don’t you walk them out, say good bye? Vanya: Let them leave. I cannot handle it any more, I cannot do it. I am exhausted I must find something to do, a project, right away: time to work, lots of work to do.

Astrov: They left! I guarantee the professor is so happy. Now there is no way he will ever come back here. Marina: (Enters) They left. (Sits in the chair and starts darning her sock.) Sonya: (Enters) They left. (Dries her eyes) God bless them and keep them. (Looks at her uncle) Alright, Uncle, let’s start working. Vanya: Work and more work Sonya: It’s been a while since we have sat together at this table, a very long time. It seems we have run out of ink. I am sad that they left. Maria: (Walks in) They left! (Sits in a chair.) Sonya: Let’s write down all our expenses, Uncle Vanya. We have no organization here in this house. We had people come today looking for their money. Start writing - you write one check and I will write another. Vanya: (Writing at the table) Here is a check for Mister... Marina: (Yawns) I want to go to sleep. Astrov: It’s so quiet. The cricket is singing. It’s nice and cozy, and warm. I don’t want to leave from here. But here are my horses. The only thing to do is to say goodbye to everyone, my dear friends. Marina: Why are you in such a hurry? You could stay longer. Astrov: I cannot. Vanya: And the old debt that is left is two hundred and seventy-five. The servant enters. Servant: Mikhail Lvovich, your horses are ready. Astrov: I heard. Take these things, and make sure to not crumble the folder. Worker: As you wish. (Leaves) Astrov: Well… (Goes over to say goodbye.) Sonya: When will we see each other again? Astrov: No sooner than the summer, I assume. Winter is not likely. Of course if something happens, please let me know. I will come right away. (Shakes her hands) Thank you for the bread, for the salt, for your kindness. In one word, thank you for everything. (Walks over to the nanny) Goodbye, old woman. Marina: How are you planning on leaving without having some tea first?

Astrov: I don’t want any, nanny. Marina: Maybe you will have a shot of vodka? Astrov: Maybe I will. One of my horses is limping. I noticed it yesterday when Peter took to get the horse water. Vanya: You need to put new shoes on her. Astrov: That means that during Christmas I will have to take the horse to get its shoes fixed, cannot really avoid it. (Walks over to the map looks where Africa is.) Is not it strange, that right now, it’s burning hot in Africa? So interesting! Vanya: Yes, probably. Marina: (Comes back with a shot of vodka and some bread.) Enjoy, have some bread with it. (He drinks the vodka.) Astrov: I am fine like this, thank you, it’s just as good. You don’t need to say goodbye to me, don’t bother. He leaves. As he walks away, Sonya follows him just to the window with her candle so she can see him off. Marina goes and sits in her chair. Vanya: (Writing and talking to himself.) …2nd of February, butter, twenty pounds, 16th of February, again butter twenty more pounds… Church bells are heard in the distance. Marina: He left! Sonya: Left… Vanya: So we have fifteen and twenty-five ponds… Sonya sits down and starts writing. Marina: Oh our sins, our sins. Vanya: (Leans over to Sonya, petting her head.) My dear child, it’s so hard right now. If you only knew how difficult this is for me. Sonya: What are we going to do, Uncle Vanya? We must live. You and me, we are going to live. We are going to live and live long. We are going to have long evenings, and will take our trials and tolerate them. Whatever temptations life will send us, we will work for others always for others and later on when we are old, we won’t know any rest, and when our time will come, we will die. We will say in the afterlife that we suffered till the end, and that we cried, and it was bitter for us, and God will have mercy on us. And you and me, dear Uncle,

61 will see a happy life, a beautiful life. We will look back on this time with a smile knowing that we did good, and then we will rest. I believe Uncle, I truly believe. We will rest one day. We will rest, we will hear angels, we will see the skies with precious jewels, and we will see how all of the earth is evil, all of our pain will be diluted in mercy, mercy that will fill up the whole world and our life once again will become quiet, and peaceful. I believe that, I believe it. (Takes out a handkerchief and dries his eyes.) My poor Uncle, poor Uncle, you are crying.(She is also now crying.) You have not known any happiness in your life, but hang in there Uncle, just hang in there. We will rest one day, we will rest. We will rest. Curtain