UNCLE VANYA Week 2 Session: “Conflict and Desire” – Chekhov – Act 2 – The Rehearsal Room [Video, Audio, and Transcript versions]

UNCLE VANYA Week 2 Session: “Conflict and Desire” – The Rehearsal Room

Libby: Okay. Hi everybody. How are you doing? You ready for a gloomy night in Russia? It’s a gloomy night ahead of ah, us. Yeah. did everybody have a good week since we were together? You know, it’s hard to ask that question or even get an answer for that these days because you’re either stuck inside or you’re wearing a mask somewhere or, you know, getting through the week is a lot different than it was two years ago, I think. Don’t you think? Okay, I, can see nobody wants to chit chat with me, so let’s get started working.

Sarah: Oh, no, we all want to chitchat with you, Libby.

Libby: Okay.

Sarah: We’re all shy.

Libby: Okay, let me tell you how I want to proceed. Actually for the next couple of sessions, we only have three more, but I consider this. When Nathan told me how this works, I was just knocked out by the generosity of it, of having two hours, four times to do one scene. I’ve never had that, that amount of time to examine something. And it just feels, like such a luxury. And it feels to me like it’s so possible for us all to get a real, get our hands around a, ah, way of working this material. Because the material is deceivingly simple, as you probably already noticed. and it has a deep underneath. And we’re going to use the next few sessions to find out what’s underneath. I want to say in advance that, yes, I know this play probably much better than you do. Yes, I will admit, but every actor brings total new truth to me and I know it, but I don’t know it. So when I ask you a question, it’ll be sincere. I’m going to want what’s going through you and what’s your imagination and your take on, on anything. So here’s how I’d like to proceed. I definitely want us to read the scene first, which we’ll do in a couple minutes. And then at the end of the session, the last half hour or so, we’ll read it again. And as soon as we read it the first time, we’ll go into examining it, literally, period. By comma, by word, by thought. And it’s going to make you crazy. I’m just telling you because I ask a lot of questions. But I need us to get a grip on what’s really going on with these people. And we’ll pretend that we’re going to do that. We’re going to rehearse this play for a year and then we’re going to do the whole play somewhere. Wouldn’t that be nice? To do the whole play? I think so. So I want to give you the method in advance so that you’re, you have, some idea of how. How we’re heading and why we’re heading the way we’re doing it. We’re really examining a process to get underneath this material. Does that sound okay to you guys? Okay, so let’s read the scene. read it aloud. and Jully, will you do, not just Marina, but you’ll also do waffles for me and for us in the. Will you read Waffles? Yes. Good. Okay. Yes. I wanted to just say in advance, you’ve got the role. You’re not auditioning for me or for Alison. You’ve got the roles, so read it. Just to find out what it’s about. Don’t try to make yourself heard as an actor, if that makes any sense. let’s make some sense out of the scene and find out what it’s about, rather than trying to show how well cast you are. Okay. All right, let’s take a look at it. I work from the book. I don’t know how to do these things on computer. Put them side by side with you. So I work from the book, but I think we’re on the same page, figuratively and literally. And I also need, Allison, are you there?

Alison: Yes, I am. Okay, I’m assembling the standing desk.

Libby: Yeah, okay, listen, I need you, if you would, to read the stage directions.

Alison: Yeah, absolutely.

Libby: Would you do that? Because they’re very important and I’ll explain all about that when we start into the scene. Yeah, for sure. Okay. That’s you, Alison, the dining room.

Alison: And Sera, Bakov’s home. Night in the garden. The watchman can be heard tapping. Serebyakov sits in an armchair before an open window and dozes. And Yelena Andreevna sits beside him and also dozes.

Alberto: Who’s there? Sonia, is that you?

Sarah: Oh, I could barely hear you. Alberto.

Alberto: One second.

Sarah: Let me try to put on the headphones.

Libby: Yeah, I was just putting my volume up too. Okay, let’s start again.

Alberto: How about this? Is that better? Can you.

Libby: That’s better.

Alberto: Is this better?

Libby: Oh, it’s a little.

Alison: Do you want me to start again at the top?

Libby: No, no, we’ll start with, Serov. Is it Serov?

Alison: It’s the hardest name in Chekhov. It’s Serebyakov.

Libby: Oh, the accent on the last syllable.

Alison: On the last syllable. So it’s like a. Yeah, it’s the toughest one, I think, in Chekhov.

Libby: okay.

Alberto: Well, does anybody actually say my name in the play?

Libby: No, they don’t. But it’s nice for us to. Don’t you want your name to be known?

Alberto: Say it three times. His name. Sonia, is that you?

Libby: I’m,

Speaker E: Here.

Alberto: You? Janotchka. The pain is unbearable.

Sarah: Here. Your blanket fell. He wrapped up his legs. I’ll shut the window.

Alberto: No, I’m suffocating. I was just starting off, and I dreamt that my left leg was attached to someone else. Yes, I woke up in such excruciating pain. No, this is not gout. Probably rheumatism. What time is it?

Sarah: 20 minutes after 12.

Alberto: In the morning. Go look for Batyushkov in the library. I’m sure we have him.

Libby: What?

Alberto: Look for Batyushkov in the morning. I seem to recall we have him. Why can’t I breathe?

Sarah: You’re tired. This is the second night you, haven’t slept.

Alberto: They say Turgenya have developed angina pectoris from gout. I’m afraid I’m getting it too. Damned disgusting. Old. H. The devil take it. Now that I’m old, I can’t stand, looking at myself. And I’m sure all of you must be repulsed by me too.

Sarah: You make it sound as if it’s our fault you got old.

Alberto: But I’m most disgusting to you.

Alison: Then Andreyevna walks away and sits at some distance.

Alberto: Of course, you’re right. I’m not stupid. I understand. You’re young, healthy, beautiful. You want to live. And I’m an old man, almost a corpse.

Libby: True.

Alberto: I understand all too well. And of course it’s a terrible crime I have lived this long. But, wait a little. Soon you’ll be free of me. I won’t last much longer.

Sarah: I’m exhausted. For God’s sake, be quiet.

Alberto: Yes, everyone is exhausted. All because of me. They’re bored. They’re wasting their time. They’re wasting their youth. I’m the only one who’s happy. I’m the only one having a good time. Well, yes, of course.

Libby: Quiet.

Sarah: You have worn me out.

Alberto: Yes, I have worn everyone out. of, Course.

Jully: This is unbearable.

Sarah: Tell me what you want from me.

Alberto: Nothing.

Sarah: Well, then be quiet, I beg you.

Alberto: It’s so strange. Ivan Petrovich. Yes? Are we stopping?

Libby: No.

Alberto: It’s so strange. Ivan Petrovich talks his head off. And that old idiot Maya. Vasilyevna. And it’s just fine. Everyone listens but, When I say one word. When I say one word, everyone suddenly feels desolate. Even my voice is offensive. Well, let’s assume I’m offensive. I’m an egoist. I’m a despot. Don’t I have the right to be an egoist in my old age? Think about it. Haven’t I earned it? I ask you, don’t I have the right to be. To a, Comfortable old age? Surrounded by. By my admirers?

Sarah: No one is taking away your right.

Alison: The window bangs from the wind.

Sarah: It’s very windy. I’ll close the window.

Alison: Closes it.

Sarah: It’ll rain soon. No one’s denying your rights.

Alison: The watchman taps. The watchman in the garden taps and sings a song.

Alberto: All one’s life to be dedicated to scholarship. To become accustomed to one’s study, to the classroom, to respective colleagues. And suddenly, for no apparent reason, to find oneself buried in this tomb. Every day to deal with stupid people, to listen to insignificant chatter. I want to live. I love success. I love fame. I, love action. But here I’m in exile. Every minute I’m longing for the past, Watching the success of others, fearing death. I cannot. I don’t have the strength. And no one can forgive me for being old.

Sarah: Wait a little. Have patience. In five or six years, I’ll be old too.

Alison: Sonia and Papa.

Speaker E: you sent for Dr. Astruff, but when he came, you refused to see him.

Libby: That’s so rude.

Speaker E: You bothered this man.

Alberto: Why do I need Astro? He understands about, He understands as much about medicine I do astronomy.

Speaker E: Well, we cannot send for the entire medical faculty just for your gouts.

Alberto: I won’t talk to that idiot.

Speaker E: As you wish.

Alison: She says all the same to me.

Alberto: What time is it?

Sarah: Almost one.

Alberto: It’s stifling. Sonia, give me the drops from the table.

Libby: Yes, of course.

Alison: Give some of the drops, not these.

Alberto: I can’t ask for anything.

Libby: Oh, please.

Speaker E: Stop acting like a baby. It may be fine for others, but spare me, please. I don’t like it. I don’t have time. I need to get up early tomorrow. I have the. The hay to mow.

Alison: Intervoy Nitsky in a dressing gown and with a candle.

Howard: The storm’s coming.

Alison: Lightning.

Howard: Here we go. Helene and Sonja, go to sleep. I came to relieve you.

Alberto: No, no, no. Don’t leave me with him. No. You’ll talk my hand off.

Howard: But they’ve got to get some rest. They didn’t sleep at all last night.

Alberto: Let them go to sleep. But you go too. Thank you. I implore you in the name of a former friendship. Go. We’ll talk later.

Howard: Our, former friendship.

Libby: Former. Be quiet, Uncle Ythonia, my dear, don’t.

Alberto: Leave me with him. He’ll talk my head off.

Howard: Can you believe how ludicrous this is?

Alison: Marina enters with a candle.

Speaker E: You ought to be in bed, Nanya. It’s very late.

Jully: The samovar is still boiling. You can’t exactly expect me to go to bed.

Alberto: Is sleeping. Everybody is exhausted. I alone am in a state of bliss.

Alison: She goes over to Serabyakov.

Jully: What is it, my dear? Are you in pain? My legs ache too. They ache so. Oh, you’ve been in pain such a long time. Vera Petrovna, Sonietzka’s mother, may she rest in peace, never slept either. She nearly killed herself taking care of you. she loved you very much. Oh, yes. Old people are like children. They want someone to feel sorry for them. But no one feels sorry for the old.

Alison: This is her mama’s shoulder.

Jully: Let’s go to bed, my dear. Let’s go, my little boy. I’ll make you some lime leaf tea. I’ll warm your legs. I’ll pray to God for you.

Alberto: Let’s go, Marina.

Jully: My legs ache too. They ache so.

Alison: He leads him together with Sonia.

Jully: Avera Petrovna nearly killed herself. Always crying. You, Sonichka, were still little then.

Libby: Come,

Jully: Come, my dear Serbyakov.

Alison: Sonia and Marina exit.

Sarah: I’m, completely exhausted with him. I can barely stand on my feet.

Howard: You’re exhausted with him and I with myself. This is the third night I haven’t slept.

Sarah: Something is wrong with this house. Your mother hates everything except for her own pamphlets. And the professor? The professor is irritated. He doesn’t trust me. He’s afraid of you. Sonia is angry with her father, angry with me and hasn’t talked to me for two weeks. You hate my husband and openly hold your own mother in contempt. And I am short tempered. And at least 20 times today I started to cry. There is something very wrong with this house.

Howard: Shall we cut the philosophy, please?

Sarah: You, Ivan Petrovich, are educated, intelligent, and you must see the world as not being destroyed by thieves and fires and wars, but rather by hatred, hostility. From all these petty squabbles. You shouldn’t add, noisy, complaining around us. You should be helping to find peace in your own family.

Howard: Help me find peace in myself, my darling.

Alison: He presses her hand to himself.

Libby: Stop.

Alison: Takes her hand away.

Sarah: Go away.

Howard: Soon it’ll stop raining and everything in nature will be refreshed and alive. I alone will not be refreshed by the storm. Day and night I’m strangled by the idea that my life is irrevocably lost. That I’m dead. That I wasted my life, that I spent my life on trifles. Here. Take my life, take my love. What good are they to me? What have I done with them? My feelings are dying away in vain. Like sunbeams falling into a dark pit. I’m dying.

Sarah: When you talk to me about your love, I just go numb and don’t know what to say. Forgive me. I have nothing to say to you.

Alison: Tries to go good night. Locking her way.

Howard: If you only knew how I suffer from the thought that next to me in this very house, another life is dying. Yours. What are you waiting for? What damned righteous morality stops you?

Sarah: Don’t you see, Ivan Petrovich?

Jully: You’re drunk.

Howard: Possibly. Possibly.

Sarah: Where’s the doctor?

Howard: He’s here, spending the night. Possibly. Possibly. Everything is possible.

Sarah: Why are, you drinking so much?

Howard: Because it makes me feel alive. Don’t try to stop me, Ellen.

Sarah: You never used to drink so much. And you never talked so much. Go to sleep. I’m bored to death of you.

Howard: My darling, beautiful, marvelous.

Sarah: Leave me alone. This is just disgusting.

Alison: She exits.

Howard: She’s gone. I first met you 10 years ago at My Darling Sisters, remember? You were 17 and I was 37. Why didn’t I fall in love with you and propose to then? It would have been so easy. And today you would be my wife. Tonight both of us would be awakened by the storm. You would be afraid of the thunder. And I would take you in my arms and whisper. Don’t be afraid, little darling. I’m here. Marvelous thoughts. Wonderful. I’m laughing, but my God, I’m so mixed up. Why am I old? Why doesn’t she understand me? The way she talks. Her stupid morality. Silly prattling about making peace in the world I hate so much. I’ve been deceived. I worshiped that professor. That pathetic, gout ridden idiot. I worked for him like a slave. Sonia and I squeezed every drop out of this estate. We were like kulaks haggling over vegetable oil peas, Starving ourselves with crumbs just so we could save a few copecks to send to him. I was so proud of him. He and his glorious scholarship. I lived for him. I breathed for him. Every word he wrote or uttered seemed like genius to me. And now he’s retired and it has become perfectly clear that the sum total of his life adds up to nothing. Not one word. Of his. Not a single scholarly word matters to anyone. A soap bubble. And I’ve been swindled. I see that now. Stupidly swindled.

Alison: Enter Astrov in a frock coat, without a waistcoat and without a tie. He’s tipsy. Behind him is Tiliagin with a guitar.

Corey: Play.

Jully: Everyone is sleeping, sir.

Alison: Play till ygin strums.

Corey: Are you alone here?

Alberto: No.

Corey: Ladies, go to the peasant house. Go to the fire. There is no place for the master to expire. The storm woke me. It’s a big storm. What time is it?

Howard: No. Who knows?

Corey: I thought I heard Yelena Andreyevna’s voice.

Howard: She was just here.

Corey: What a gorgeous woman.

Alison: Seeing the bottles on the table.

Corey: Medicines, drugs. There’s nothing missing. Kharkov, Moscow, Tulskaya. Every city is plagued with his gout. Is he really sick or is he faking it?

Howard: Sick.

Corey: Why are you so sad today? Pity for the professor.

Alberto: Quit it.

Corey: Or maybe you’re in love with the professor’s wife?

Howard: She’s my friend.

Corey: Already.

Howard: What does that mean, already?

Corey: A woman can only be friends with a man. In this order. First an acquaintance, then a lover, and then finally a friend.

Howard: Vulgar.

Corey: Oh, yes, it’s true. I’m becoming vulgar. I’m drunk. Usually I get drunk like this once a month. And when I’m drunk, I get completely vulgar and fearless. Everything seems so easy to me. I take on the most difficult operations and do them brilliantly. I make daring plans for the future. And when I’m drunk, I no longer seem like a freak. And I actually believe I’m bringing some enormous benefit to humanity. Enormous. And when I’m drunk, I see how valuable my own personal universe is. And the rest of you piddling creatures seem like insects, microbes, waffles.

Libby: Play, dear one.

Jully: I would love to play for you with all my soul. But understand, everyone is sleeping.

Libby: Play.

Alison: Deliegin. Quietly Strums.

Corey: You need a drink. Oh, I see there’s some cognac left. In the morning we’ll go to my place. Raichar. I have a medical assistant who never says right, but. Raichar. Idiot. Right. Char.

Alison: Seeing Sonja enter.

Alberto: Pardon?

Corey: me, I forgot my tie.

Alison: Quickly he exits. Tillie again follows.

Speaker E: And you, Uncle Vanya, you got drunk again with the doctor?

Speaker E: A couple of juveniles hanging around together. Well, he’s always been like that. But what in heaven’s name is wrong with you? At your age, you should know better.

Howard: Age has nothing to do with it. When you don’t have a life, you live on Soap bubbles. It’s better than nothing.

Speaker E: Our hay needs to be cut. It rains every day. Everything is rotting and all you talk about is soap bubbles. You’re completely neglecting the farm. I have to work alone. I’m strained to the breaking point. Uncle, you have tears in your eyes.

Howard: Tears? It’s nothing. Nonsense. The way you looked at me just now. Just like your mother. How sweet.

Alison: Greedily he kisses her grump in the face.

Howard: My sister. My sweet dear sister. Where is she now? If only she knew. If only she knew.

Libby: Knew what? Uncle,

Howard: What? It’s so hard. Nothing. Later. Nothing. I’m going.

Alison: He exits.

Libby: Good. Gosh. It’s a great, great piece of the play, isn’t it? Just beautiful. Thank you. Well, read. Where, where, where’s Alberto? Does everybody see Alberto except me? Nobody does.

Alberto: No, no.

Jully: Nathan still logged in? Yes.

Sarah: His camera turned off. But he is here.

Alberto: Oh.

Libby: But, Oh, there he is.

Alberto: Yeah.

Libby: We need to see you. Okay, here I am.

Alberto: Right.

Libby: Okay. All right. Being about ready to start into it in minute detail. what’s your general impression about the scene? Any overall feelings about. It’s more than one scene, of course. It’s a couple of scenes in there. But any, Any thoughts? Anybody have any feelings about.

Speaker E: Just seems to be filled with just frustrated longing. You know what I mean? Like everybody. Like frustrated desperation of not getting what you want, not even knowing what they want. But just a general sense of just frustration. Like at the. The apex of frustration.

Libby: Yeah. Edginess, dissatisfaction.

Speaker E: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Everybody seems edgy.

Libby: Yes.

Alberto: And the sense of, A bit. Everybody seems to have insomnia. it’s Everybody’s tired, but. And irritable and it’s late at night and there’s a storm brewing. So I can. It feels like, the atmosphere is lowering and is pressing on all of us or something.

Libby: Yes, yes. Does feel that way. Yeah.

Sarah: Between the exhaustion and the alcohol, everybody seems to be in some sort of altered state.

Libby: I’m glad you brought up the alcohol too. It seems to be a. A regular part of the Russian diet. Right. Yeah. A little out. Certainly. Vanya is drunk again.

Libby: Any other thoughts about the overall quality of. Of the world that it’s in?

Corey: Yeah.

Jully: Oh, sorry.

Corey: No, go. Go ahead, Jully.

Jully: Well, I was just gonna say that it feels that people want to escape, but there’s no escape.

Libby: Yeah.

Jully: They’re just stuck and they want to leave.

Libby: This duck is a great word too.

Speaker E: And it’s. It’s even and. And jumping on to that. Jully. It’s like they’re stuck not just in the space and not just in the environment, but stuck in their minds in a way. You know, stuck in their. In their thoughts and in their. It keeps thinking just desperation that it doesn’t seem like there can even be any relief for the desperation. It’s just like they’re languishing in that.

Sarah: There’S no politeness keeping folks from truth telling here. everybody is completely open.

Speaker E: But do you think that.

Libby: Well, of course it’s two or three in the morning, so being right isn’t too surprising. Right.

Speaker E: So they’re drunk, they’re tired, nobody slept, they’re tipsy, they’re exhausted. yeah, they’re in pain.

Libby: Just a few things.

Alberto: And their thoughts seem to be circling around, coming to the same spot. Right.

Libby: Like what?

Alberto: Yeah.

Libby: Ah.

Alberto: There’S an ide fix or something that each one has. I’m going to die. I’m too old. he’s in love with her. She’s so bored. Sonia is exasperated that everybody’s. I mean, here she is, overworked, in love and frustrated. Yeah.

Libby: Yeah.

Corey: It’s funny because it seems like everybody’s talking about them being so old, but there seems to be this sort of younger, energy, like a childlike energy, where it’s like, I need to get this. This is my last chance to get it. And tonight’s the night that this is gonna happen.

Libby: You, know, I’m the oldest one amongst us, and I would say it’s not just childlike. Corey. I find various times in my life saying, is this what it is? Is this what it’s about? I think that follows you always, and especially when you reach a midpoint in your Life. I see 47. I know 47 probably doesn’t sound too old, but it was getting on to being old in Chekhov’s time. As I told you, he died at 40, 44. Of course, he was very ill, but still, 47, you should have found yourself already, buddy. Kind of thing, you know, what do you think about, the fact that a storm is coming? What’s your. What’s your feeling about that?

Corey: It storms to be kind of romantic, but that’s good in a way.

Libby: I think that’s true.

Alison: For me.

Speaker E: It feels.

Jully: Go ahead, Deidre.

Speaker E: No, no, no, you go ahead, Sarah.

Sarah: I think the storm affects people in different ways. There’s individual responses to the storm. You know, when you’re an old guy with pain in your bones, a storm ends up bringing on extra pain. If you’re Sonia you’re thinking about the hay that needs to be mowed. Your vanya, you’re thinking about. This could be very romantic. You know, there seems to be very different individual responses to what it represents.

Libby: That’s great. That’s absolutely wonderful.

Speaker E: Yeah, there’s. There’s a sense that. That with the. With. With the storm comes urgency. The barometric pressure is lowering, so it’s creating pressure, sort of. It’s pressurizing this already. You know, I mean, I just get the sense of like, sort of a sticky feeling, you know, so. So it feeds into the irritability. It feeds into the lack of being able to sleep, the barometric pressure.

Libby: So. So there’s.

Speaker E: So there’s probably pressure in the head and this feeling like, I gotta get out. I gotta just, you know, I need some fresh, clean air. And with the storm coming, it just sort of encapsulates that feeling of being trapped, you know, sort of being trapped in this. In all of the stuff, you know, the sticky stuff that exists.

Libby: That’s great. Allison, talk about the weather in Mellichovo, and in the summertime.

Alison: Oh, yeah. It’s just a place of extremes. I mean, it gets down. It doesn’t get. It’s funny, I was looking at the. At the different temperatures, and it doesn’t get crazy, crazy hot. But I think the humidity.

Libby: Humidity, yeah.

Alison: And the saturatedness of it is what’s going to add to that stickiness. It’s like the American south or, like, you know, or parts of the Mid Atlantic or New England where you’re like, you wake up and you need to take a shower. And when you go to bed, you also need to take a shower, and maybe one in the middle as well.

Libby: but, you know, air conditioning.

Alison: Yeah, no air conditioning. You got windows open. But then you open the windows, and then, like, it’s more damp coming in. yeah. And it’s a very fertile place. And so everything is growing and alive and holding that wetness as well. You know what I mean? So it’s. There’s a wildness to it. and there’s this sense that, like, having spent a summer in Russia, I was struck by the fact that nobody ever mows their lawns. Or at least in the country they don’t. So there’s this wildness happening, you know, like, the hay gets mown and stuff, but otherwise there’s the sense that, like, you know, you live the whole winter with things just died back and all of that. And then once the spring and summer come, everything just goes crazy. M so there’s a. There’s a wildness and a fecundity to it. like a. Yeah, like a fertile.

Libby: Yeah, like it’s pulsing.

Alison: Yeah, like it’s pulsing.

Alberto: Yeah. Yeah.

Alison: It’s like a pulsing vivacity to it.

Alberto: That’s.

Alison: And. And it’s got to be. So when you witness it year after year. And yet your own life doesn’t change with the seasons.

Alberto: Yeah.

Alison: I can only imagine what that does.

Libby: Yeah. I spent my youth in New York. I was born in New York. And, there was no air conditioning when I was a kid. And those humid New York summers were death. Absolutely horrible. And I want to tell you, I did the scene when I was, in an acting class with Lloyd Richards. Do you know the name of Lloyd Richards? The great Lloyd Richards, who was not only one of the great directors of the world, was a, marvelous acting teacher. I was lucky enough to take a class with him. And I was doing the, Yelena Sonja scene. I was playing Yelena. And, just for scene work. And we start. I. We’re standing together, and I’m entering to talk to, Sonia, who is in a state over Astro. And I said, the storm is over. Or whatever is that first line. And he stopped me and he said, where’s the storm? I said, the storm is outside. You know, I started. I was giving him realistic answers. He asked me maybe 12 times where the storm was until I finally understood that the storm was inside of me. And I didn’t. And I didn’t get that until he pushed me into a place where I could find the storm inside of me. Me was, It’s something I’ll remember. I have remembered all of my life. as a turning point for me in understanding this work, as well, I wanted to say to you that I’m asking for Alison to read the stage directions. Because every stage direction. When we’re examining the work right now, every stage, direction, is Chekhovs. And he’ll say through tears or tenderly or. And it isn’t that I’m looking, or any director is looking for a result because of what the, stage direction is. It’s to give you a clue as to what is going on. what’s going on inside the person and what’s going on in the environment, which is tremendously important to him. Also very important is sound. And we’ll talk about it in a second. But you notice he notates the sound. The sound of the watchman tapping. And what the. What the watchman is doing is he’s tapping to say, all’s well over here. All’s well over here. All’s well over here. Not that close together, of course, but that adds to the musicality of the scene. Chekhov is an extremely musical, writer. And that’s not always thought about. It’s very lyric. And, he brings all of that in. A director can choose not to have that, but you just need to understand what’s part of the environment.

Libby: Does that make any sense? Okay, let’s start again. and I’m going to stop you every minute, so don’t be mad at me. Let’s start with Allison. With you.

Alison: Great. And Libby, would you like me to read every single one?

Libby: No. no. what do you guys think? What do you guys think, like, when he gives the actor, a director? I think actually, this time through, we should do it so that we see what Chekhov is after. Yeah. Okay, so leave space for Allison to do that.

Alison: Act two, the dining room and Sarah Bryakov’s home. Night in the garden. The watchman can be heard tapping.

Libby: Okay. In the dining room. Any thoughts about that?

Alberto: 3:00. Why did we not go to bed?

Libby: Yeah, great.

Alberto: did I. Did I have a glass of wine or two or three, you know? But then why is my wife here keeping me company?

Libby: Yeah. yeah. Why.

Libby: Why didn’t you go to bed? Let’s start with that.

Alberto: Okay. The bedroom’s hot. the, This dining room seems to be the largest room in the house. I’m speculating.

Libby: That’s a very good choice.

Alberto: Yeah. And, so even if I have the master bedroom, which I do, of course, it still is smaller than this dining room. If I am in pain with rheumatism. Yes.

Libby: Ah.

Alberto: I keep my movements at a minimum. After dinner is like, Oh, I’ve got a, I’ve got an attack of, the misery. And I rather not move now and then. I doze off instead after a fairly good dinner. Heavy dinner. Also, contrariness. I don’t know. I’m just being. I don’t want to go to bed. I don’t know. The childlike. No, not yet. I don’t want to go to. I don’t know.

Libby: Yeah, yeah, that’s. That’s probably there. but there’s probably good reason for him to feel like he wants some attention.

Alberto: Yes. Yes. I’m. I’m not sure how aware he is of, How all the, How A couple. How the two men are circling his wife with their tongues hanging out. I’m not sure. He can’t be that oblivious to it. But he does. Yeah. Yes.

Libby: Yeah. I think that’s a good way to think that he can’t be completely oblivious to the fact that she is. It can’t just be Vanya and Astrov. I mean, this is an extraordinarily beautiful woman.

Alberto: But there seems to be a certain complacency to him, like, well, of course she’s not going to stray. She’s my wife.

Libby: Yes. Your wife. Mine? Yes.

Alberto: how could she possibly. Even though I say, you know, I’m disgusting to her, but it’s like. But there’s duty. And I don’t know, when I say those lines, one thing that struck me afterwards was I was going, the first time we met. Such a contrast to now. This what I’m feeling. I think I haven’t constructed anything about our first meeting, but it feels to me like there’s this wonderful, maybe even romanticized memory in the back of my, head. And here’s my wife barely able to keep her gorge down when she looks at me, you know?

Libby: That must feel terrible.

Alberto: So yeah, if I go to bed, then she’ll be forced to sleep, to lie down beside me. And I know how she hates that.

Libby: Oh, that’s a very interesting idea, Alberto. Yeah. Yeah.

Alberto: Whoa.

Libby: Is that, this is, this is all in the dining room. Not in a bedroom where it should be. The house is kind of turned upside down. Right.

Alberto: And besides, I, do stay up later. Marina, was complaining about, my asking for whatever at ah, odd hours. We eat late.

Libby: Eat very late and hard to digest. Especially as you get older, when you eat late. And as Marina says right from the beginning in her first, speeches with Astra, she says that the samovar has been boiling all day. And you know, they have to turn the samovar on normally early and turn it off at a certain time. In other words, things are upside down in the house. Right.

Alberto: And mainly my doing.

Libby: Yes, I would say that’s probably true. But let’s just take it slow now for just recognizing that in the very first words of the, of the stage direction, he’s telling us something’s wrong because they’re in the dining room middle of the night. Okay. And we know it’s the middle of the night because we hear the watchman tapping. So he’s created for you, for us, an atmosphere that you’re in, you’re not just in the bedroom complaining. You’re in the public room of the dining room where everybody is. I don’t know how big this house is.

Alberto: I, seem to. There’s a lot of rooms, it seems. I complain about the labyrinth.

Libby: Yes. Yes. That’s excellent.

Alberto: So this is a country house, which could be large, I suppose. Yeah.

Libby: Yeah. I think it’s modeled after Melekhovo, don’t you, Allison?

Alison: Yeah, yeah. It’s where he was living when he wrote this. And certainly his best understanding of country life. And he was the doctor. He was the country doctor there.

Libby: Yes, he was.

Alison: Yeah. So several bedrooms. Yeah. Good enough. a big enough family house that it, can accommodate a family and some extended family.

Libby: And I would. I would probably think that because of Alberto, your comments about the rooms being, you know, a labyrinth and hard to find your way around here. I think it’s telling us that it’s big. It’s not an estate. It’s not like. It’s not an aristocratic estate like Cherry Orchard. It’s a country house. It’s a dacha.

Alberto: It’s, a little more utilitarian. Right? Yeah. There’s no fancy furnishings.

Libby: That’s right.

Alberto: Yeah.

Libby: Right.

Alison: Yeah. And there’s a sense that probably over time, it’s maybe been added onto, leading to that labyrinthian feel.

Libby: that’s a very good idea. I like that.

Alberto: So.

Libby: I have a question.

Alberto: Sorry. Go ahead, Deidre.

Speaker E: I was just having a question about. Can you tell me the watchman. Who is the watchman? what is the function of the watchman? He’s in the garden, and the watchman can be heard tapping. What is he tapping on?

Libby: He’s tapping with a stick on the wood of the house. And each time he taps, he’s saying, it’s safe here. There are no animals coming. There’s no people coming to rob. It’s. It’s just a technique. It’s a. It’s an alarm system. That’s what it is. And.

Speaker E: Okay.

Alberto: Basically going, 3:00 and all is well.

Libby: That’s right. It’s like that. That’s exactly what it is.

Alison: And it’s also alerting anyone who would come.

Sarah: Ah.

Alison: That there’s a watchman.

Alberto: Yeah. Yeah, I see. So, okay.

Alison: Stuff like that. so it’s not that they’re that wealthy, but also, at this time in Russia, there was just enough poverty and starvation happening in some areas that it wouldn’t be the craziest idea that somebody could come and steal food. From property. Especially if you were a working farm.

Libby: And he’s probably, like, in several of the plays, a workman. He’s a workman for the estate. He probably helps with the farm. Now, the word estate, and that conjures up grand, hundreds, thousands of acres. I don’t think it’s that, but it is a working farm. And I like what you said, Allison, that this gives, Gives, people or any predator the idea not to come near.

Speaker E: Got it.

Libby: Got it.

Speaker E: Okay.

Alberto: Now, somehow, I’m obsessing on the watchman tapping, so this should ordinarily be a comforting sound. I, mean, yes, the security guards are at work. but if I’ve been asleep and I hear the tapping, is it too much of a leap that this wakes me up? It’s the tapping that wakes me up. And it’s been almost like the end of fate.

Libby: I think that’s a perfectly good choice. And I think were we on our feet and working it, we would try that, I like that idea, that it gets you out of a snooze.

Alberto: Okay.

Libby: Okay. All right. Allison Serbiakov sits.

Alison: Serebyakov sits in an armchair before an open window and dozes. And Yelena Andreevna sits beside him and also dozes, waking up.

Alberto: Sonia, is that you?

Libby: Well, now, why would it be Sonia?

Alberto: because she’s always waiting on me. She’s the, The. The person who is always. She’s the handmaiden. She’s, She’s always helpful. She’s, On the other hand. Am I alarmed that it could possibly be Sonia? I don’t know why Sonia? That’s a good question. Now, we’re really. I didn’t think about it, Libby, to be honest.

Libby: Well, that’s why we’re doing this.

Alberto: I expect Sonia to be there.

Libby: And anybody else have any ideas about it?

Jully: She’s loyal. She’s like a lap dog, kind of like she’s always there working for him.

Sarah: She’s.

Jully: I mean, her existence is kind of to serve him.

Libby: Yes, but why did.

Speaker E: Why doesn’t he call his wife? I mean, if he wakes up and he’s like, does he. Does he know where he is? It’s just strange. Does he know where he is? And if he. You know, if he. If he thinks he’s in his bedroom, as opposed to. Because he’s like, you know, who’s. Who’s there?

Alberto: The.

Speaker E: Who’s there? That wouldn’t be a question that I think you would ask in a dining room. You know what I mean?

Libby: Uh-huh.

Speaker E: If you. You’re waking up out of a. You know, out of a doze, it feels like you’re waking up out of a dream, maybe, or waking up out of a. You know. Yeah. I mean, I don’t have an answer. I’m just like. It’s just interesting that he calls on Sonia. Not, you know.

Alberto: Yeah. Sorry.

Howard: it also. It’s often felt to me like. Because Vanya comes in and he says Yelena and Sonia have been watching all night for three nights. That when he fell asleep, Sonia was there and that they switched while he. He’s been asleep so long that the. That the nurse has rotated maybe m.

Libby: Yes, that’s an extremely good point, Howard. How many shifts have already gone on since dinner? I mean, we are talking middle of the night here. So. Ah, he’s. And it’s a question. Is he in his night clothes or is he still in. You know, these are good, things to examine. It would make a difference if you’re in your night clothes. Wouldn’t you feel more vulnerable if you’re in a dining room in your night clothes? I would. Which. I wear my nightgown all the time. But that’s another.

Jully: I had a question about meal times, because in the play it says that they’re having, lunch at 6 or 7 o’clock now.

Libby: Yeah.

Jully: Lunch still means the midday meal, right?

Libby: Right. That’s right. Everything is topsy turvy, Jully. Yes.

Alberto: Yeah.

Jully: So then. So dinner would have been around maybe around midnight?

Libby: Well, then, yes. But it should have been seven, Right? That’s a long way away. Seven to midnight. Yeah. Okay, let’s. Let’s, Okay, let’s, take that again. Alberto. The. Who’s there?

Alberto: Who’s there? Sonia, is that you?

Sarah: I’m here.

Alberto: You Janotchka? Is that a surprise?

Libby: Okay, let me stop you there. What do you think about the Lenochka?

Alberto: Well, it’s very. It’s a pet name. It’s, a very affectionate nickname. Yes. So this has come out in spite of me. It’s almost like, you know, or, in my half dreamy state. yeah, it. It just feels so affectionate. Here. Leonochka.

Libby: That’s a tremendously important idea, Alberto. Most of the time he’s played just that there’s nothing between them.

Alberto: So there’s.

Libby: The first time he uses her name in the play, he calls her Lenochka. I don’t remember whether he talks to her in the first act. I don’t think he does.

Alberto: Yeah, no, he goes in she comes later. So I don’t think so. So. Or does he. Does he come back in the first. No, I think he.

Libby: No, he doesn’t come back. He goes to the study and leaves them. I also think it’s interesting that he’s not in his study room that they use as his study. here. he’s in the dining room. I kind of can’t get over that really, that they are set up in the dining room. Probably, probably in night clothes. And the reason that I’m harping on that is you’re vulnerable, when you’re, when you’re not in a vest and a suit and, you know, completely.

Alberto: So a certain comfort that I’m here.

Libby: Yes.

Alberto: You know.

Libby: Yes, yes.

Alberto: I, don’t know. It, I, I guess I’m flashing on Astro going, oh, I’m not dressed because he doesn’t have his vest on.

Libby: Yes, yes, yes.

Alberto: So I don’t know how comfortable I am with, you know, being in question.

Libby: Yeah, yeah.

Alberto: is it because I’ve taken over the dining room. Ah. And has made it my dining room slash study?

Libby: Could be. Well, no, you have a study because you’re going to send her to the library. The house study slash library. so there is another place.

Sarah: It’s, it’s interesting because later when Marina comes in, she says, let’s go to bed. Let’s take you to bed. Which does seem to me indicate that this is a little bit more unusual for him to have. Or at least it’s not the, the end game that he’s stayed in the dining room. It, because she takes him to bed. It seems to me this is more of a post dinner, he fell asleep here. So now we’ve got to check, shift our routine and watch him here until. Either until the morning or until he wakes up again. It’s kind of like whatever happens to this guy, we just have to stop and make that the new normal for this moment.

Libby: Yes. I think that’s really.

Howard: My. My dad does this. He’ll sit at the table so long after dinner that he falls asleep. And then everybody has to, like, it’s super disruptive. You know, it’s like at my brother’s house with two kids, and here’s this nonagenarian asleep at the table and everybody has to kind of shape themselves around him for that hour or two.

Libby: Please don’t let that happen to me. yeah. And, I’m partial to the idea that they are in nightgowns of whatever sort, because Vanya and Sonia comes in still in. In night. They’ve been trying. Everybody’s been trying to sleep. And he’s so restless and in pain that he’s moved out and. And Yelena had to follow, you know, that kind of scenario. In any case, that’s my scenario. You find your scenario.

Libby: Okay. What I’m trying to get at is that it’s important because you got to know what brought you to this moment. Like you would in any play. Of course. But there’s a lot of stuff here so far. The watchmen tapping, faraway storm. Maybe there’s lightning, I don’t know. Which makes electricity in the air. I mean, there’s a lot happening. and you can’t skip by it. The other thing I wanted to say, as we’re going to continue, I promise we’re going to continue. The punctuation is very deliberate. It is always in anything with language. But this punctuation is very deliberate. What do you think the ellipses are? The dot, dot, dots. And there are many of them. And they’re not all Chekhovs. I admit to adding myself into this. So. What do you think? What do they do for you, the ellipses?

Alberto: Well, they give me some prompts as to what subtext is happening here. before the next line. what happens in between. In the space between. Affectionately Notchka. And the next line. The pain is unbearable.

Libby: Yeah.

Alberto: Am I making a pun? Is the pain physical or the pain of, lost love and dead love?

Libby: You know, or maybe just to get her attention. I don’t. I don’t know.

Alberto: Or, you know, or poor little me.

Libby: Sweetheart, there’s that too. And there’s also real pain.

Alberto: Yeah.

Libby: Howard, your 90s, father would be able to tell you there’s real pain as you get old. It really, really. All your joints hurt at night when you finally get into bed. okay, what about the dashes? What do the dashes give people? People.

Alberto: To me they’re, New thought. or, interrupting myself or.

Libby: Yes, yes, yes. And the kind of the lipses gives. Gives it. I’m not looking for pauses. The only pauses in this play are where Chekhov puts them. Okay, so it’s not pausing, but it’s the way we think. We. It dribbles off or it. Wait a minute. That’s the dash, you know, that it creates something that’s going on in the thinking. So I want. I’m just asking you to be aware of the punctuation and don’t run by it. See if it gives you anything. Everything is what it means to the actor and how it makes you understand what’s going on here. And that you make an emotional map. And punctuation is as important as word choice.

Alberto: Thank you.

Libby: Okay, Let’s go back. Let’s go back. We haven’t gone very far. But let’s start with. Who’s there? Sonia, is that you?

Alberto: Who’s there? Sonia?

Sarah: I’m here.

Alberto: You, Janotchka, the pain is unbearable.

Libby: Let me just ask you, Yelena, were you awakened with the, Sonia, is that you?

Sarah: I believe so, because the directions say she sits besides him and also dozes.

Libby: Yes. So let’s try that again with you being in quotes. Awakened by.

Jully: Okay.

Libby: Alberto.

Alberto: Who’s there? Sonia, is that you?

Sarah: I’m here.

Alberto: You, Leonotchka, the pain is unbearable.

Sarah: Here. Your blanket fell.

Alison: Props up his legs.

Sarah: I’ll shut the window.

Alberto: Oh, I’m suffocating.

Libby: Why do you want to shut the window, do you think, Yelena?

Sarah: the storm is coming. It’s probably a bit windy. a bit uncomfortable. Chilly breeze coming through, maybe?

Libby: Chilly breeze would be nice. That’s true. I don’t think you get that relief.

Sarah: That’s true.

Libby: Definitely a hot wind. M. That’s good. And, Electricity in the air. Humid electricity in the air.

Alberto: Was I reading? maybe.

Libby: Let’s go from here. You know, I want to go from you, Lenochka, the pain is unbearable.

Alberto: You. You, Lenotchka, the pain is unbearable.

Sarah: Here. Your blanket fell. I’ll shut the window.

Alberto: Oh, I’m suffocating. I was just nodding off and dreamt that my left leg was attached to someone else. I woke up with such excruciating pain. No, this is not gout. Probably rheumatism. What time is it?

Libby: Wait, let’s. Let’s deal with this. What’s going on here?

Alberto: I, was taking it literally. yeah. Don’t close the window. There’s a little bit of air at least. though not much.

Libby: Yes.

Alberto: And, I’m having trouble breathing anyway. Or I think I am. Or I have convinced myself I am.

Libby: Yes. Or you want to convince you.

Alberto: Her.

Libby: You are.

Alberto: Right.

Libby: A little bit of all of it. Right.

Alberto: Yeah.

Sarah: There’s this perceived objection that I have, as if I’m about to say it’s your gout. Some sort of previous conversation in there where we have thought about gout versus rheumatism. And I must confess, I don’t know the difference between them as far as how it Affects you one way or the other.

Alberto: Gout is, mainly in the lower extremities, I think.

Libby: Toes and feet. Yeah.

Alberto: they swell up.

Libby: It’s considered a rich man’s disease. And it’s trivialized, but it’s very, very painful.

Alberto: Oh, yes.

Libby: And it’s considered a rich man. Of course it’s not. It can happen to anyone. But it’s because, from the wine that you drink and the foods that you eat, the rich foods create a kind of acid that goes to those joints and creates that. So it’s a little bit of, an insult if you’ve really only got gout.

Alberto: that. Is that what Dr. Astro has diagnosed me as having gout.

Libby: Well, he says it in the scene.

Alberto: And, Sonia sent for him saying his gout’s acting up or something.

Libby: Or just said that he’s in terrible pain and he’s not sleeping.

Alberto: Okay. So I’m self aware.

Howard: It’s also. Gout’s also like a first line of defense that doctors use often. Like if you go in complaining of some kind of pain, they’re like, it’s gout. It’s a way of like, kind of putting you off.

Libby: I didn’t know that.

Howard: They’ll give you. They’re like, it sounds like you have gout. No matter what it is wrong with you. They’ll kind of be like, it’s gout.

Libby: But you have gout. Right?

Howard: Yeah. And m. Me and kind of implying that you did it to yourself a little bit. Like what you were saying about the wine.

Libby: Exactly. That’s the answer, Howard.

Howard: That’s right.

Alberto: Thank you much. You eat too much.

Libby: that’s right. And all the wrong foods and. And drink too much wine. Yes. So it. You’re. She’s trying to comfort you by putting your blanket around you, right?

Alberto: Mm,

Libby: Just want you to notice that and see how it. If it registers. Maybe it doesn’t.

Libby: Let’s go back from here. Your blanket fell.

Sarah: Here. Your blanket fell.

Alison: She wraps up his legs.

Sarah: I’ll close the window.

Alberto: No, I’m suffocating. I was just nodding off and I, trapped that my left leg was attached to someone else. I woke up in such excruciating pain. no, this is not gau. Probably rheumatism. What time is it?

Sarah: 20 minutes past 12.

Libby: Oh, okay. I remembered it later. Yeah.

Alberto: In the morning. Go look for Batyushkov in the library. I’m sure we have him.

Libby: Okay. Alison, tell us about batushka.

Alison: Okay.

Alberto: May 1767. To July, 1865. Whoa. Good job, Constantine. But Yushkov, went a little insane in his old age, or, middle age, and was. Yeah.

Libby: What was he known for?

Alberto: Poetry? He was. Yeah. Here’s, one of his lines. I only wake to fall asleep, and sleep to awake without end, which is very apt for the player.

Libby: Very. Now I think it’s time for us to. Why would he want a volume of Batiuszka? And what is he clear planning to do? What. What’s. Why would he ask for it in the middle of the night?

Alberto: Well, he’s like a precursor of romanticism, I guess. big influence on, Pushkin. okay. That’s precursor of Pushkin. Anyway, why would s want his today? I thought he was going to write a paper, but of course, he’s probably dried up and he’s got writer’s block. I, don’t know.

Libby: Don’t be so hard on him, Alberto. Don’t be so hard on him. You’re very nasty about him. He’s not. He’s not a comic villain. He’s. He’s. He’s in pain.

Alberto: Yeah. It’s like it feels like a young man’s, poet, from what I’ve read. So I don’t know. Maybe it’s comforting to him.

Libby: Okay, that’s great. That gives you a reason to ask for it. you know, something that you feel like you need. You just need to read a little of his work. Now, also, what you said before about I’m going to write a paper on it or it’s going to influence something I’m writing already. In other words, he still feels part of the academic world.

Alberto: Still working, still useful.

Libby: Still working. Mine’s still going. I’m still important.

Howard: He says it. Oh, sorry.

Libby: Yeah.

Howard: He says in Act 1 when he just enters very briefly with Yelena and Sonia, and he says, my friends, bring my tea to the study, if you please. I still have work to do. So, he’s still, He’s trying to stay in the game or something?

Libby: Yeah, absolutely. Even though we know he’s retired now. That’s the whole point. Let’s talk for an instant. Sorry that we’re taking so long on these first five lines, but, it sets up a kind of vocabulary for us. when did they come? Yelena and, Sebria. When did they come and why are they here?

Sarah: Didn’t they come about a month ago?

Libby: It’s not. I, It doesn’t say exactly.

Sarah: It doesn’t Say, okay, I made that up, Mario.

Libby: Scenario, Sarah.

Alberto: And I’m sorry, what was the second part of the question?

Libby: Why are they there?

Alberto: Ah.

Libby: Take a shot, Somebody question.

Jully: What kind of benefits do you get as a, renowned professor? Do you get housing?

Libby: There were no benefits like any kind of.

Jully: Any kind of. Kind of housing or anything like that. Because, I mean, once he’s retired, there’s no reason for him to stay in the city in a bustling town, so.

Libby: And in fact, we hear that, later in the play, of course, the big climactic scene, he’s talking about selling this place. But they must have sold their place in town at the university, probably St. Petersburg or something. they must have. In other words, they left the housing whether it was given by the university or not. I don’t think we should think in terms of anybody getting any benefits. It’s just an entirely different world. but, he’s probably. They probably signed off in St. Petersburg or Moscow. I don’t remember. Do they say whether, they come from Moscow? I don’t remember.

Alison: I don’t remember. I feel like it’s St. Petersburg, but I don’t know.

Libby: I feel like it. Well, that’s where she went to the conservatory.

Alison: Yeah.

Libby: Yeah. I feel like it’s St. Peter because it’s more elegant city. anyway, they probably sold their digs in the. At the university, and now they’ve come here for what purpose, do you think?

Alberto: to save on rent for one.

Libby: Yes. Yeah.

Alberto: if they sold it, where’s he going to stay? He can’t afford to buy a new place.

Jully: Right.

Libby: In the city if he’s retired. Right. And she doesn’t work. Of course she doesn’t work. So they’ve come to stay. They. Probably because it’s a summer dacha for them. A summer house like somebody would have at a lake or.

Sarah: Or.

Libby: Or, ah, on the beach. they probably come every summer. but this is different. Why is this different?

Alberto: they’ve been here longer.

Libby: Yes. And planning to stay longer. Right.

Alberto: and they haven’t said anything about, oh, when the summer’s over, we’re going back to wherever. Moscow slash St. Petersburg. Yeah. So it seems like they, gave the impression that they’re here to stay.

Libby: They’re here to stay. Write that down across your foreheads. They’re here to stay. What could be worse than having them here to stay? For Vanya, for Sonia, Even though she, loves her father. And she loves her father. So. but it’s. It’s It’s a true. And for Marina.

Jully: Oh, yeah.

Libby: It’s a tremendous upheaval to have. Not only is the samovar still boiling and they have meals at the wrong time, but they are stuck at the will of these people.

Alberto: M.

Libby: And we get that right away because they’re in the dining room in the middle of the night in bed clothes, and, everybody in the house is running in attendance to him. Okay, let’s go back. Let’s go from, La Nochka. Tell me how to say that. Alison Lenochka.

Alison: Yeah, yeah. So usually with all the ochkas encas, all that stuff, usually the stress stays on what the original syllable would have been as part of the name because it’s Jelena. Her nickname would be Lena and then Janochka. So, it always stays with the original part of the name. It doesn’t move to the. To the ochka or anchor.

Libby: Got it. That’s a terrifically helpful comment. Okay. Okay. Sebriako.

Alberto: You. Oh, you’re not Leonard.

Libby: That’s great.

Alberto: Your pain is unbearable.

Sarah: Here. Your blanket fell. I’ll close the window.

Alberto: No, no, I’m suffocating. I was just nodding off, and I dreamt that my left leg was attached to someone else. I woke up with such excruciating pain. No, this is not gout. Probably rheumatism. What time is it?

Sarah: 20 minutes after 12.

Alberto: In the morning. Go look for Batyushkov in the library. I’m sure we have him.

Sarah: What?

Alberto: Look for Batyushkov in the morning. I seem to recall we have him. Why can’t I breathe?

Sarah: You’re tired. This is the second night you haven’t slept.

Alberto: I say Turgenev developed angina pectoris from gout.

Libby: I think it’s angina pectoris. Is that wrong?

Alberto: I’m, going. Well, anyway.

Libby: It’s a heart.

Alberto: Okay. shall I go with a church Latin pronunciation picture.

Libby: Since I’ve never spoken Latin in a church, you decide.

Alberto: Okay. But I will say angina, right?

Libby: Yes.

Alberto: Okay. All right. I say Turgenev developed angina pictoris from gout. I’m afraid I’m getting it too.

Libby: So you’re admitting you have gout, huh?

Alberto: Caught busted. Damp gust. Old age. The, devil take it. Now that I’m old, I can’t stand looking at myself. I’m sure all of you must be repulsed by me too.

Sarah: You make it sound as if it’s our fault you’re getting old.

Alberto: M. But I’m most disgusting to you.

Libby: Yes. Now now, let’s take a moment and, Sarah, what do you think attracted you to begin with, in this relationship, and where is it now?

Sarah: I think his. His talent and his mind attracted me completely. and where it is now?

Sarah: The.

Libby: The.

Sarah: The shine of the mind has worn completely off because the mind is circular. I feel as if I hear him say the same thing over and over and over again. And it is no longer fascinating. It’s mostly just wearisome at this point.

Libby: What do you think about his desire to continue his work by asking you to get that book from the library?

Sarah: Man, this is all so personal to me. Caretaking my father, who is this character right now? So I’m trying to answer for you, Lana, and not for Sarah. I.

Libby: Well, it’s probably a mixture of both, Sarah.

Sarah: It probably is. I think I, play along. But I don’t think I in any way believe in it anymore. So there’s. There’s just, like sometimes you have the energy to play along. So you do, because that’s easier.

Libby: I don’t know about you guys, but I had crushes on different teachers in my life, especially at university. I think it comes with the territory, of growing up and maturing and seeing these idols, absolute idols. you know, your professor knows everything. And if he’s not 105 and he’s kind of important to the university at that time, you give over. And what did you wind up with?

Sarah: Yeah, it didn’t, He hasn’t come of anything. And, you know, it’s possible I can still somewhat respect his mind, but the reality is I don’t. I don’t think I’m really part of this relationship. I’m an accessory to my own relationship. And you can admire somebody’s brain all you want, but at a certain point, when you don’t have space, you don’t belong in your own space. It’s. It becomes suffocating.

Libby: Very good. Suffocating is such an important word. and idea in this. In the whole play and certainly in this scene. Suffocating from the humidity and his gap.

Sarah: And I do. Yeah. And I do think that there. There must be, you know, a difference between the man who he was 10 years ago, where you can feasibly, you know, feel sexy feelings about him, versus when it becomes too much of an age difference. You know, there. There’s too much of a difference in where you are in life. And I, I can only imagine at a certain point you. You with that much of an age Gap. You stop feeling the same way that you did before. At the very least, you.

Libby: You.

Sarah: You switch from being a wife to a nurse.

Libby: Yes. Which is pretty awful for a talented, beautiful woman. And stuck in the country. In the country as a possibility. I want you both to realize that you put your. You’re giving your life over to living with Vanya and Sonia in this country house. I mean, after the thrill of the cities and, the life that you must have had some other contact with. I’m so sorry we didn’t get any further. I want to read the whole scene again. I want us to do it twice today. Okay. But next Monday we’ll continue with this. But we’re just laying a groundwork, guys. If we don’t get it all finished, I think we will. But don’t be impatient if you feel we didn’t get to your scene or anything like that. We’re just laying a groundwork of the kinds of questions to ask and things that seem trivial aren’t. They’re just clues. Like Shakespeare, whose language tells you everything. Shakespeare was the best director in the world and best stage manager. He knew exactly how to move you around and what. What you needed to sound like and when you needed to make emphasis on. On a, certain word in an idea. Yes. His. His map is incredibly out there. Once you learn how to navigate through the. Through the language. Chekhov gives you the same kind of map. No, Chekhov gives you a map. It’s harder to decipher. Except that you have to answer all of these questions for yourself. You have to ask yourself all of these things. Nothing is thrown away. The movement of, a blanket on his legs is an attempt to comfort. I don’t know what it is, or to shut him up or help him go to sleep or whatever, but it has to be understood in the context of who this person is and what’s been going on.

Libby: Okay, let’s read the whole thing because we need pretty close to a half hour for it. Yeah, cool.

Alison: And Libby with the stage directions. Just things that actors can’t.

Libby: Yeah, yeah. Don’t give the actor ones. cool.

Alison: Okay. the dining room and Serabyakov’s home. Night in the garden. The watchman can be heard tapping. Sarabukov sits in an armchair before an open window and dozes. And Yelena Andreyevna sits beside him and also dozes.

Alberto: Who’s there? Sonia, is that you?

Sarah: I’m here.

Alberto: You know, the pain is unbearable.

Sarah: Here. Your blanket fell.

Alison: He wraps his legs.

Sarah: I’ll shut the Window?

Alberto: No, I’m suffocating. I was just nodding off and I dreamt that my left leg was attached to someone else. I woke up with such excruciating pain.

Sarah: It’s probably your gout.

Alberto: No, this is not gout. Probably rheumatism. What time is it?

Sarah: 20 minutes after 12.

Alberto: In the morning. Go look for Batyushkov in the library. I’m sure we have him.

Sarah: What?

Alberto: Look for Batyushkov in the morning. I seem to recall we have him. Why can’t I breathe?

Sarah: You’re tired. This is the second night you haven’t slept.

Alberto: They say to Gene you have developed angina pectoris from gout. I’m afraid I’m getting it too. Damn disgusting old age. The devil take it. Now that I’m old, I can’t stand looking at myself. And I’m sure all of you must be reborn false by me too.

Sarah: You make it sound as if it’s our fault you got old.

Alberto: But I’m most disgusting to you.

Alison: She walks away and sits at a distance.

Alberto: of course, you’re right. I’m not stupid. I understand. You’re young, healthy, beautiful. You want to live. And I’m an old man, almost a corpse. True, I understand all too well. And of course it’s a terrible crime. I have lived this long. But wait a little. Soon you’ll be free of me. I won’t last much longer.

Sarah: I am exhausted. For God’s sake, be quiet.

Alberto: Yes, everyone is exhausted. All because of me. They’re bored. They’re wasting their time, they’re wasting their youth. I’m the only one who’s happy. I’m the only one having a good time. Well, yes, of course.

Sarah: Be quiet. You’ve worn me out.

Alberto: Yes, I have worn everyone out.

Sarah: This is unbearable. Tell me what you want from me.

Alberto: Nothing.

Sarah: Well, then be quiet, I beg you.

Alberto: It’s so strange. Ivan Petrovich talks his head off and that old idiot Maria Vasilyevnow and it’s just fine. Everyone listens. But when I say one word, everyone suddenly feels desolate. Even my voice is offensive. Well, let’s assume I’m offensive. I’m an egoist. I’m a despot. Don’t I have the right to be an egoist in my old age? Think about it. Haven’t I earned it? I ask you, don’t I have the right to a comfortable old age, surrounded by my admirers?

Sarah: No one is taking away your rights.

Alison: The window bangs from the wind.

Sarah: It’s very windy. I’ll Close the window.

Alison: She closes it.

Sarah: It’ll rain soon. Nobody is taking away your rights.

Alison: The watchman in the garden taps and sings a song.

Alberto: All one’s life to be dedicated to scholarship, to become accustomed to one’s study, to the classroom, to respected colleagues. And suddenly, for no apparent reason, to find oneself buried in this tomb. Every day to deal with stupid people, to listen to insignificant chatter. I want to live. I love success. I love fame. I love action. But here I am. I’m in exile. Here I’m in exile. Every minute, Longing for the past, watching the success of others, fearing death. I, cannot. I don’t have the strength. And no one can forgive me for being old.

Sarah: Wait a little. Have patience. In five or six years, I’ll be old too.

Libby: Papa.

Speaker E: You sent for Dr. Astroff, but when he came, you refused to see him.

Libby: That’s so rude.

Speaker E: You bothered this man.

Alberto: Why do I need your Astrov? he understands as much about medicine as I do. astronomy.

Speaker E: We cannot send for the entire medical faculty just for your gout.

Alberto: I won’t talk to that idiot.

Speaker E: As you wish. She said it’s all the same to me.

Alberto: What time is it?

Sarah: Almost one.

Alberto: It’s stifling. Sonia, give me the drops from the table.

Speaker E: Yes, of course.

Alberto: Not these. I can’t, ask for anything.

Speaker E: Please stop acting like a baby. It may be fine for others, but spare me, please. I don’t like it. I don’t have time. I need to be up early tomorrow.

Libby: I have the.

Speaker E: Hey, demo.

Alison: Enter Voynitsky in a dressing gown and with a candle.

Howard: The storm’s coming.

Alison: Like.

Howard: Here we go. Helen and Sonia, go to sleep. I came to relieve you.

Alberto: No, no. Don’t leave me with him. No. He’ll talk my head off.

Howard: But they’ve got to get some rest. They didn’t sleep at all last night.

Alberto: Let, them go to sleep. But you go too. Thank you. I implore you in the name of a former friendship. Just go. We’ll talk later.

Howard: Former friendship. Former.

Speaker E: Be quiet.

Alberto: Uncle.

Speaker E: Vanya.

Alberto: My dear, don’t leave me with him. He’ll talk my head off.

Howard: Can you believe how ludicrous this is?

Alison: Arina enters with a candle.

Speaker E: You ought to be in bed, Nanya. It’s very late.

Jully: Samovar is still boiling. You can’t exactly expect me to go to bed.

Alberto: No one is sleeping. Everybody is exhausted. I alone am, In a state of bliss.

Jully: What is it, my dear? Are you in pain? My legs ache too. They ache so. I’ve been in pain such a long time. Avera Petrovna, Sonietzka’s mother, may she rest in peace, never slept either. She nearly killed herself taking care of you.

Libby: Uh?

Jully: She loved you very much. Oh, yes. Old people are like children. They want someone to feel sorry for them. But no one feels sorry for the old. Let’s go to bed, my dear. Let’s go, my little boy. I’ll make you some lime leaf tea. Tea. I’ll warm your legs. I’ll pray to God for you.

Alberto: Go, Marina.

Jully: My legs ache too. They ache so. Vera Petrovna nearly killed herself. Always crying. You, Sonieta, were still little then. Come, come, my dear.

Alison: They exit.

Sarah: I am completely exhausted by him. I can barely stand on my feet.

Howard: You’re exhausted with him and I with myself.

Libby: Hold one second. Sarah, you missed a couple times on words. Oh, I’m exhausted with him.

Sarah: With him. Thank you, M. I’m completely exhausted with him. I can barely stand on my feet.

Howard: You’re completely exhausted. You’re exhausted with him and I with myself. This is the third night I haven’t slept.

Sarah: Something is wrong with this house. Your mother hates everything except her own pamphlets. And the professor. The professor is irritated. He doesn’t trust me. He’s afraid of you. Sonia is angry with her father, angry with me, and hasn’t talked to me for two weeks. You hate my husband and openly hold your own mother in contempt. I’m short tempered and at least 20 times today I started to cry. There is something very wrong in this house.

Howard: Should we cut the philosophy, please?

Sarah: You, Ivan Petrovich, are educated, intelligent, and you must see that the world is not being destroyed by thieves and fires and wars, but rather by hatred, hostility. From all these petty squabbles. You shouldn’t add to the noisy complaining around us. You should be helping to find peace in your own family.

Howard: Help me find peace in myself, my darling.

Sarah: Stop. Go away.

Howard: Soon it’ll stop raining and everything in nature will be revolving. I alone will not be refreshed by the storm. Day and night I’m strangled by the idea that my life is irrevocably lost, that I’m dead, that I wasted my life, that I spent my life on trifles. Here, take my life, take my love. What good are they to me? What have I done with them? My feelings are dying away in vain, like sunbeams falling into a dark pit. I’m dying.

Sarah: When you talk to me about your love, I just go numb and I don’t know what to say. Forgive me. I have nothing to say to you good night.

Howard: If you only knew how I suffer from the thought that next to me, in this very house, another life is dying. Yours. What are you waiting for? What damned righteous morality stops you? Don’t you see, Yvonne Petrovich?

Sarah: You were drunk.

Howard: Possibly.

Alberto: M.

Sarah: Where’s the doctor?

Howard: He’s here. He’s spending the night. Possibly.

Libby: Possibly.

Howard: Everything is possible.

Sarah: Why are you drinking so much?

Howard: Because it makes me feel alive. Don’t try to stop me, Helene.

Alberto: You,

Sarah: Never used to drink so much. And you never talked so much. Go to sleep.

Howard: And bored to death with you, my darling, Beautiful, marvelous.

Sarah: Leave me alone. This is just disgusting.

Alison: She exits.

Howard: She’s gone. I first met you 10 years ago. Years ago at my darling sisters, remember? You were 17 and I was 37. Why did not fall in love with you and propose to you then? Would have been so easy. Today you would be my wife. Yes. Tonight both of us would be awakened by the storm. You would be afraid of the thunder. I would take you in my arms and whisper. Don’t be afraid, little darling. I’m here. Marvelous thought. Wonderful. I’m laughing, but my God, I am so mixed up. Why am I old? Why doesn’t she understand me? The way she talks. Her stupid morality. Her silly prattling about making peace in the world. I hate it so much. I’ve been deceived. I worshiped that professor. Pathetic, gout ridden idiot. Worked for him like a slave. Sonia and I squeezed, squeezed every drop out of this estate. We were like kulaks, haggling over vegetable oil peas, starving ourselves with crumbs just so we could save a few copics to send to him. I was so proud of him and his glorious scholarship. I lived for him, I breathed for him. Every word he wrote or uttered seemed like genius to me.

Alberto: God.

Howard: And now. Now he’s retired. And it has become perfectly clear that the sum total of his life adds up to nothing. Not one word of his, not a single scholarly word matters to anyone. The soap bubble. I’ve been swindled. I see that now. Stupidly swindled.

Alison: Enter Astrov in a frock coat, without a waistcoat and without a tie.

Libby: He is tipsy.

Alison: Behind him is Till Yegan with a guitar play.

Jully: Everyone is sleeping, Sir.

Alison: Playan quietly strums.

Corey: Are you alone here?

Alberto: No.

Corey: Ladies. Go to the peasant house. Go to the fire. There is no place for the master to expire. The storm woke me. Big storm. What time is it?

Howard: Who knows?

Corey: Oh, I thought I heard Yelena Andreyevna’s voice.

Howard: She Was just here.

Corey: What a gorgeous woman. Medicines, drugs. There’s nothing missing. Kharkov, Moscow, Tulskaya. Every city is plagued with his gout. Is he really sick or is he faking it?

Howard: Sick.

Corey: Why are you sad today? Pity for the professor. Professor.

Howard: Quit it.

Corey: Or maybe you’re in love with the professor’s wife?

Howard: She’s my friend already. What does that mean, already?

Corey: A woman can only be friends with a man. In this order. First an acquaintance, then a lover, and then finally a friend.

Howard: Vulgar.

Corey: Yes, it’s true. I’m becoming vulgar. I’m drunk. Usually I get drunk like this once a month. And when I’m drunk, I get completely vulgar and fearless. Everything seems so easy to me. I take on the most difficult operations and do them brilliantly. I make daring plans for the future. When I’m drunk, I no longer seem like a freak. And I actually believe I’m bringing some enormous benefit to humanity. Enormous. And when I’m drunk, I see how valuable my own personal universe is. And the rest of you piddling creatures seem like insects, microbes.

Libby: Waffles.

Corey: Play.

Jully: Dear one. I would love to play for you with all my soul. But understand, everyone is sleeping.

Alberto: Play.

Corey: You, Need a drink. Oh, I see there’s some cognac left. In the morning we’ll go to my place. Right ya are. I have a medical assistant who never says right, but right ya are.

Alberto: Idiot.

Corey: Right. Jar.

Alison: Seeing Sonia enter.

Corey: Pardon me, I forgot my tie.

Alison: Quickly, he exits.

Jully: Till Yegan follows.

Speaker E: And you, Uncle Vanya, you got drunk again with the doctor? a couple of juveniles hanging around together. Well, he has always been like that. But what in heaven’s name is wrong with you? At your age? You should know better.

Howard: Age has nothing to do with it. When you don’t have a life, you live on soap bubbles. It’s better than nothing.

Speaker E: Our hay needs to be cut. It rains every day. Everything is rotting. And all you can talk about is soap bubbles. You’re completely neglecting the farm. I have to work alone. I’m strained to the breaking point. Uncle, you have tears in your eyes.

Howard: Tears? It’s nothing. Nonsense. The way you looked at me just now. Just like your mother. Sweet. Your sister. Your sweet, dear sister. Where is she now? If only she knew. Oh, if only she knew.

Speaker E: Knew what? Uncle? What?

Howard: It’s so hard. Nothing, nothing. I’m going.

Libby: Really well read, guys. It’s really well read. you know, I was. A couple little things, Just to think about, Sibryakov. I know I’m saying it wrong. Allison. It’s Serbriakov. Serov.

Alison: yeah, it’s on the cough. Serbyakov.

Libby: I’ll never get it. Yeah, He’s a little vain, Alberto. he’s a little vain, don’t you think?

Alberto: Well, he keeps saying all these things and he’s waiting for his wife to go. No, you’re not.

Libby: Yeah, that’s good. That’s good. It just struck me this time. Yelena, just want you to examine how that speech. See what we’re going to do all of this next week. But I. I wanted just you to think about, you know, when the house, the something is wrong in this house speech. Sarah.

Sarah: Yeah.

Libby: It. She doesn’t know all of it. It’s spinning and take some time looking at that. Okay? Yeah.

Sarah: Let it discover instead of yes.

Libby: Yeah. Yes. and Howard, you’re doing such good work. I know you’ve worked a little bit with Ursula and with Allison this past weekend. I can see how much thought you put into it. It’s terrific. remember that you are. I don’t want you to be afraid of the romantic things that he’s spinning for her. Remember that you’re trying to seduce her. I know you’re a little drunk. Drunk. But you. You’re in a position of spilling now all that you’re feeling. So don’t run away from it and try to get it over with. Seduce her with it. You know what I’m talking about. Okay. Okay. It was good. Any comments or thoughts? It was really good. Any comments or thoughts?

Corey: I was just noting. Noticing, how many times when Yelena is talking about how she’s feeling, the next thing is from, Is,

Corey: Me. Me. What about me? It’s hilarious.

Libby: Yes, exactly. Well, I guess because I’m as old or older than, the professor now, and I, really feel for him. What?

Alberto: I said maybe not.

Libby: Well, yes, he’s very egotistical. There’s no question about that. But, old age is tough. And he hurts. He really hurts. And Marina is the only one who understands. I mean, she’s annoyed at him, but she understands too. She becomes his Nyanya. Right there. It’s beautiful. I guess what I’m trying to say is I don’t think of him as a villain. I understand his dilemma. And I understand what it feels like to not being in the spotlight anymore and not knowing where to put yourself hard. All right, my dears. I will look forward to next week. You’re reading beautifully. I know. I wasn’t trying to cast you, but I would cast you. Exactly. Nathan did a fantastic job. You’re all great. I’ll, see you next week.

Sarah: Thank you. Thank you. Have a good week.

Jully: Thank you.