Joanna Murray-Smith’s new adaptation of Uncle Vanya reminds us Chekhov’s play is both timeless and timely

By Alexander Howard, Senior Lecturer, Discipline of English and Writing, University of Sydney

Virginia Woolf always maintained that, of all of the great writers, the British novelist Jane Austen “is the most difficult to catch in the act of greatness”.

To my mind, the groundbreaking Russian playwright Anton Chekhov gives Austen a close run for her money. He is also, as one tends to find when seeing his work performed live, very hard to get right.

This difficulty stems from the subtlety and nuance of Chekhov’s writing, which, on the surface, appears to trade exclusively in…

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