I can’t be the only one who, when reading Uncle Vanya, thinks of Wallace Shawn.* Brilliant casting. I’m reading and adapting my own little play this morning, and realized that I would very much like to play Vanya. Perhaps only in Act 3, but I feel so much for him. Maybe I just need someone to offend me so much that I would have an excuse to try to kill them.

Ideally, people shouldn’t be identifying with Vanya. We should all be treated better than that. But, as Dorn says in Act 1 of The Seagull, “What can I do? What?”

 

*Vanya on 42nd Street