Displaying items by tag: Anton Chekhov

AstonRep Productions, the theatre and film production company that has produced over 30 stage productions in Chicago, has announced it will be the first company in the US to bring Liisa Repo-Martell's adaptation of Chekhov's UNCLE VANYA to audiences. Repo-Martell's script, which was first produced by Toronto's Crow's Theatre in 2022, has been praised for its contemporary and colloquial language. The Toronto online arts magazine INTERMISSION said, "it is delicate and wholly faithful to Chekhov's story... relatable and even startlingly contemporary, affirming the timelessness of the themes Chekhov explored in his writing." The Crow's Theatre production was remounted in 2024 at Toronto's CAA Theatre and was named one of the top ten productions of the year by both THE GLOBE AND MAIL and THE TORONTO STAR. AstonRep's production will be directed by Derek Bertelsen, who recently helmed the revival of the hit comedy FULLY COMMITTED at The Den Theatre and has directed many of AstonRep's productions.  Bertelsen was co-founder/artistic director of The Comrades theater company from 2016-2020. UNCLE VANYA will open to the press on June 19 at 7:30 pm, following a preview on June 18, and play through July 5, 2026, at the Edge Off-Broadway, 1133 W. Catalpa Ave., Chicago.

Bertelsen's cast will feature Rian Jairell in the title role of Vanya – a bitter and broken man who wonders what he might have done with his life if he had not committed to managing the family estate. Jairell's previous roles with AstonRep include Ariel in THE PILLOWMAN and Jerry in BETRAYAL. The beautiful Helena, who captivates all the characters, will be played by Andi Muriel, seen recently in THE TOTALITY OF ALL THINGS for Redtwist Theatre and THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST for Strawdog Theatre. Robert Tobin, who was Founder and Artistic Director of AstonRep Theatre Company, will be Astrov, a neighbor and overworked country doctor who feels ruined by provincial life. Tobin's recent credits include ARMS AND THE MAN for Forest Theatre Company and THE PILLOWMAN with AstonRep. Another PILLOWMAN castmate, Natalie Hurdle, will play Sonya, who has loyally steadfastly worked to maintain the estate, and is deeply attracted to Dr. Astrov.

Cast as Vanya's mother Maria is Mary Mikva (of TIME IS A COLOR AND THE COLOR IS BLUE  for Avalanche Theatre). Geoff Issac, seen recently in MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS for Deerfield Theatre, will be the pompous and egotistical failed scholar Serebryakov. Liz Cloud (of AstonRep's BURIED CHILD) will be the nurse Marina, and Mike Rogalski (ELEKTRA – Forest Theatre Company) will play Telegin, an impoverished landowner who works on the estate.

The UNCLE VANYA production team will include Jeremiah Barr (set, lighting and properties design), Natalie Shoch (costume design), Samantha Barr (lighting design), Melanie Thompson (sound design), Bethany Hart (assistant director and vocal coach), and Nevaeh Mansur (Stage Manager). 

Tickets to UNCLE VANYA are $25.00 and will be on sale beginning April 25 at www.astonrep.com or by phone at or (312) 620-4583.

UNCLE VANYA
by Anton Chekhov
US Premiere of the new adaptation by Liisa Repo-Martell
Directed by Derek Bertelsen
June 18 – July 5, 2025
Regular run Thursdays-Saturdays at 7:30pm, Sundays at 3pm
Edge Off-Broadway
1133 W Catalpa Ave, Chicago, IL 60640
Tickets- $25, available beginning April 25 at  www.astonrep.com or (312) 620-4583

At a remote country estate in the final days of Czarist Russia, Vanya and his niece Sonya have spent years sacrificing everything to keep the family farm afloat. Their quiet routine is shattered when Sonya's aging father returns with his much younger wife, stirring up long-buried desires, resentments, and regrets. As tensions rise and futures feel increasingly uncertain, the family is forced to confront the lives they've lived—and the ones they never will. This new adaptation by Liisa Repo-Martell provides an up-close encounter with a classic of world drama that every theatre lover must see.

AstonRep Productions, the theatre and film production company that has produced over 30 stage productions in Chicago, has announced it will be the first company in the US to bring Liisa Repo-Martell's adaptation of Chekhov's UNCLE VANYA to audiences. Repo-Martell's script, which was first produced by Toronto's Crow's Theatre in 2022, has been praised for its contemporary and colloquial language. The Toronto online arts magazine INTERMISSION said, "it is delicate and wholly faithful to Chekhov's story... relatable and even startlingly contemporary, affirming the timelessness of the themes Chekhov explored in his writing." The Crow's Theatre production was remounted in 2024 at Toronto's CAA Theatre and was named one of the top ten productions of the year by both THE GLOBE AND MAIL and THE TORONTO STAR. AstonRep's production will be directed by Derek Bertelsen, who recently helmed the revival of the hit comedy FULLY COMMITTED at The Den Theatre and has directed many of AstonRep's productions.  Bertelsen was co-founder/artistic director of The Comrades theater company from 2016-2020.

Bertelsen's cast will feature Rian Jairell in the title role of Vanya – a bitter and broken man who wonders what he might have done with his life if he had not committed to managing the family estate. Jairell's previous roles with AstonRep include Ariel in THE PILLOWMAN and Jerry in BETRAYAL. The beautiful Helena, who captivates all the characters, will be played by Andi Muriel, seen recently in THE TOTALITY OF ALL THINGS for Redtwist Theatre and THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST for Strawdog Theatre. Robert Tobin, who was Founder and Artistic Director of AstonRep Theatre Company, will be Astrov, a neighbor and overworked country doctor who feels ruined by provincial life. Tobin's recent credits include ARMS AND THE MAN for Forest Theatre Company and THE PILLOWMAN with AstonRep. Another PILLOWMAN castmate, Natalie Hurdle, will play Sonya, who has loyally steadfastly worked to maintain the estate, and is deeply attracted to Dr. Astrov.

Cast as Vanya's mother Maria is Mary Mikva (of TIME IS A COLOR AND THE COLOR IS BLUE  for Avalanche Theatre). Geoff Issac, seen recently in MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS for Deerfield Theatre, will be the pompous and egotistical failed scholar Serebryakov. Liz Cloud (of AstonRep's BURIED CHILD) will be the nurse Marina, and Mike Rogalski (ELEKTRA – Forest Theatre Company) will play Telegin, an impoverished landowner who works on the estate.

The UNCLE VANYA production team will include Jeremiah Barr (set, lighting and properties design), Natalie Shoch (costume design), Samantha Barr (lighting design), Melanie Thompson (sound design), Bethany Hart (assistant director and vocal coach), and Nevaeh Mansur (Stage Manager). 

Tickets to UNCLE VANYA are $25.00 and will be on sale beginning April 25 at www.astonrep.com or by phone at or (312) 620-4583.

For some, an evening of Chekhov may sound like pure misery, but Red Theater’s “The Seagull” running at The Edge Off Broadway soars. The original adaptation by Red Theater cohort Ian Mayfield imagines Anton Chekhov’s emotionally searing dramady as a chamber play. Under his direction, this faithful version is a hidden gem of this winter’s storefront theatre scene.

Though known for depressing family melodramas, Chekhov did have a sense of humor, and perhaps in no other play is his cynical wit more on display than “The Seagull”. Any production is only as good as its neurotic, self-involved Arkadina. Anne Sheridan Smith is a captivating presence in the role of the celebrated actress. She brings an amusing larger-than-life performance that’s devilish to watch. Lovelorn and constantly drinking Masha played by Magdalena Dalzell delivers cutting physicality that’s also quite thrilling.

Jamie Herb is one of the production’s strongest assets in the role of Nina. Her performance takes full advantage of the closely drawn staging. She tells entire stories with haunting gazes. Her eventual breakdown feels more disturbing than the play’s actual tragic conclusion. However, perhaps no character is as pitiful as Medvedenko the schoolteacher. Ben Murphy plays the role with a subdued quietness that’s like whatever the opposite of “golden retriever boyfriend” energy is.

Original scoring by Jonathan Hannau lends to the chamber play atmosphere and elevates the ambiance. Maggie McGlenn’s sumptuous costumes combined with Hunter Cole’s minimal staging keep the focus on the action. As the actors move in and around the space, audiences will feel personally drawn in, as if they’re a silent guest at a party.

Red Theater’s “The Seagull” is a great example of what makes Chicago’s fringe and storefront scene so exciting. While many may look to the bigger institutions like Goodman or Steppenwolf to tackle major works by important playwrights, with the right talent in place a small theater can be just as impactful, if not more in some cases. Ian Mayfield’s version spends a lot of time dissecting Chekhov’s musings on artistic forms, and that curiosity about the craft of theatre feels evident in this cast. The result is a labor of love, and exactly what you want from a good night of theatre–that you lived through something. 

Through March 15 at Red Theater at The Edge Off Broadway. 1133 W Catalpa Ave. Tickets via www.redtheater.org

This review is proudly shared with our friends at www.TheatreInChicago.com. 

When we think of summertime in Chicago, we probably wouldn’t associate it an existential play set in a small Russian town filled with woe and dread and longing. That style of play would fit better with the dark winter days. But like a required literature course in high school, or a classic novel from another century we had to read, it’s often later that we realize why we took that course, why we read that book Like Chicago itself, with its long dark winters, there is a beautiful tapestry of people with thriving, complex lives, with dreams and desires sometimes unrealized or just out of reach. That is at the theme at the heart of Anton Chekhov’s classic Three Sisters, now playing at Invictus Theatre for a limited time.

Anton Chekhov was a Russian playwright and short-story writer. Chekhov is often referred to as one of the three seminal figures in the birth of early modernism in the theatre. Chekhov was a physician by profession. "Medicine is my lawful wife," he once said, "and literature is my mistress." The playwright penned Three Sisters in 1900 and the four-part play was first performed in 1901. This seminal classic chronicles three and a half years in the falling fortunes of the four children of a recently deceased Colonel in the Russian army, notably three sisters: Olga (played by Maria Stephens), Masha (played by Katherine Schwartz), and Irina (played by Ellie Duffey). They have been living in a small town in Russia for the past 11 years and yearn to return to the excitement of Moscow. Their dreary provincial life is enlivened only by the arrival of the Imperial Army. The sisters' dreams of a new life are crushed when their brother marries a woman they consider ill-bred and mortgages the house.

Like the green light at the end of Daisy’s dock, the eventuality of a courtship in Netflix’s One Day, like a Bears dynasty, the three sisters within the play long for something more than their lives. Throughout the first act they long to work, to contribute to society if only to fight the boredom a privileged life affords them. In the second act, they loathe work and long for a life of elegance and ease. Throughout the play they and others put Moscow on a pedestal, often whispering the name with reverence, like a prayer, as though the city would hold the promise to their happiness, the end to their misery. Juxtaposed against minor characters who are happy and contented, the stark contrast forces the audience to determine if the protagonists are justified in their woes or drowning in their self-made misery.

Chekhov’s Three Sisters has a timeless staying power that still resonates in the modern world and is a perfect existential piece to juxtapose against the beautiful Chicago summer evenings. Invictus Theatre Company took on the lofty goal of putting on the production as the first run in its new home at The Windy City Playhouse in Irving Park. Paul Schmidt’s translation and condensation of the four-part play into two acts highlights all the key points and themes. Set against an intimate and enchanting set by Kevin Rolfs, Director Charles Askenaizer transports us to the small Russian town filled with existential woe, philosophical debates on life and love, and bridges the centuries with this timeless classic.

As summer kicks off in Chicagoland, don’t pine for an evening out or promise yourself you’ll see this play one day. Seize your Moscow and see Three Sisters. Three Sisters is playing in a limited run at Invictus Theatre at The Windy City Playhouse at 3014 W Irving Park Rd through July 14th. Tickets are available at www.invictustheatreco.com. ваше здоровье.

Robert Falls is back! Well, for a short time at least to direct his adaptation of Anton Chekhov’s “The Cherry Orchard.” Falls retired as the Goodman Theatre artistic director in 2022, but his productions of Chekhov’s classics have become events to anticipate. “The Cherry Orchard” is the endcap to Falls’ Chekhov series that began with ‘Three Sisters’ and has included “The Seagull” and “Uncle Vanya”. Each a definitive production that was met with critical acclaim. “The Cherry Orchard” is no exception, in fact, it might even be his best.

“The Cherry Orchard” premiered in Moscow in 1904, just a few decades after the end of serfdom in Russia. The story follows Lyubov Ranevskaya (Kate Fry) as she returns to her family’s estate after years of living abroad. The estate has fallen into disrepair and unless the taxes are paid, Lyubov is certain to lose the property her family has held onto for centuries. Her childhood friend, a former serf, Yermolai Lopakhin (Kareem Bandealy) eagerly awaits her return, and offers her family solutions that would allow them to keep the estate. It’s also implied Yemolai is in love with Lyubov. As with any Chekhov play, the lives of the serving class are also highlighted in all their unrequited loves and general discontent.

This “The Cherry Orchard” is a veritable who’s who of the Chicago theatre scene. Kate Fry plays Lyubov with an almost manic vacillation between childlike naiveté and a crazed addict. Her powers are immediately illuminated from the moment she walks on stage. Regular Goodman player Amanda Drinkall plays the maid Dunyasha. Her giddy and absurd physical humor brings a much-needed sense of humor to a role that doesn’t offer much kindness to the family accountant Semyon—played with as much physical humor but perhaps more guttural pathos by Will Allan. Chicago stage favorite Janet Ulrich Brooks returns with another wonderful performance as the governess/trickster Charlotta. Her sleight of hand magic tricks make you wonder if she really is magic after all. Perhaps nobody is as affective as Francis Guinan as the servant Firs, who may just be the last vestige of serfdom on the property. The pottering body language and stammering delivery are devastating.

Adding to the roster of Chicago theatre staples, set designer Todd Rosenthal’s staging is nothing short of epic. There’s a striking blend of minimalism mixed with the kind of over-the-top spectacle that Goodman audiences expect. While it’s not always a necessity to have larger than life sets, some occasions just call for it and a theatrical event like this is fitting to pull out all the stops. Costumes by Ana Kuzmanic play nicely against Rosenthal’s backdrop.

If you’re going to see a classic, the team behind “The Cherry Orchard” is your best bet. Robert Falls has had an influential career turning Goodman Theatre into the institution it is today and Chicago audiences will likely continue to be enchanted by his work for years to come. His own adaptation of “The Cherry Orchard” digs deep on the idea of what it means to be free. It also showcases some terrific performances from some of Chicago’s most beloved performers. This production feels like a love letter to the theater that made Robert Falls the mastermind Chicago has come to expect. You won’t be quick to forget this epic night at the theatre.

 Through April 30 at Goodman Theatre. 170 N Dearborn. www.goodmantheatre.org.

“A man came by chance, saw it, and destroyed it” repeats Chekhov in his psychological melodrama “The Seagull”. Such a simple phrase says so much about the ways humans can treat one another. Steppenwolf Theatre revives the classic play under the title “Seagull” in a new adaptation by company member Yasen Peyankov who also serves as the director. Steppenwolf invites audiences to their new impressive theater space for its inaugural production. The cast primarily features ensemble members in what feels like a celebration of Steppenwolf’s rich legacy.

“Seagull” is a great introduction to the impressive new building on Steppenwolf’s campus as well as a great introduction to Anton Chekhov. Yasen Peyankov worked on this script for many years, occasionally working with Russian language experts from Northwestern University to maintain Chekhov’s original intent. Audiences will be struck by how fresh this script sounds. Plays of this era can be a bit of a slog for the uninitiated, but this version has a stronger sense of immediacy to the lines. Peyankov focuses his script on the dark humor that often gets diluted out in tedious repetition and lengthy scene-work. The main points are easier to grasp here and overall serves the tragic ending more because the characters feel more relatable.

Peyankov’s script is peppered with a reality TV flare. Nobody perhaps better inhabits that flavor than Lusia Strus as Irina Arkadina. Her character is a fading stage actress who’s summering at a country house with her new beau and her adult son. Her adult son Konstantin (Namir Smallwood) is also struggling writer and loathes his mother’s successful writer boyfriend Trigorin (Joey Slotnik). He’s in love with Nina (Caroline Neff) but she much favors fame than love. Konstantin cannot return the love of the caretaker’s gothic daughter Masha (Karen Rodriguez) though she’s the only one who believes in his talent as a writer. Emotions run high and reactions run big, just like an episode of “Real Housewives.” Lusia is a bold, sexy and smokey voiced Irina, often walking away with most of the laughs in the play.

“Seagull” seems more focused on the female ensemble and that’s just fine because this is a stellar cast of actresses. Masha is arguably one of the best roles an actress can ask for. Karen Rodriguez doesn’t get bogged down in the angst of the role, but rather uses physicality to enhance the comic absurdity of Masha’s moroseness. Masha’s mother Paulina is played by Sandra Marquez who also does a great job of pulling out the humor of an otherwise pathetic character. This script brings the young starstruck Nina character to life more than previous versions. The play gets its name from her character afterall. Caroline Neff delivers a notably emotional performance. The beauty of the new in-the-round space is that in the final moments of the play audiences are able to see and experience the facial expressions of the actors in a way not possible in their existing spaces. Neff is devastating as she manically circles the performance space vacillating between clarity and delusion. Throughout the play Neff speaks the dialogue so naturally that it almost doesn’t feel like scripted words at all.

Purists will have their qualms with this new adaptation but there are only so many ways to use the same dusty old scripts. Yasen Peyankov’s script is definitely cheeky, but there’s real depth in his version. By cleaning up the clutter of words in traditional translations he makes room for the character ambitions to be clearer. When they don’t get what they want, it makes it all the more tragic. If you’re looking for a lighter dance through Chekhov, this is the version to see.

Through June 12 at Steppenwolf Theatre Company. 1650 N Halsted. www.steppenwolf.org/seagull