Andrew Scott on His Melancholy, Hilarious, Sexy One-Man Vanya
(Photo: Julieta Cervantes)
At first blush, a one-person take on Uncle Vanya might sound like a terrible idea—a belabored theatrical stunt destined to wear thin pretty quickly. But in the hands of Andrew Scott, one of the most magnetic and gifted actors of his generation, there are revelations in store.
“I suppose it's about the stories that we say to ourselves about ourselves,” said Scott about Vanya, adapted by Simon Stephens, directed by Sam Yates and now playing at the Lucille Lortel Theatre after a triumphant run in the West End.
Chekhov’s original, Scott explained, is populated by characters much like ourselves: bemoaning their lot in life, fixating on their own physical attributes or the attributes of those around them. “We think, Oh, well I'm too old, or, She's beautiful, or, He's ugly, or whatever. Blah, blah, blah.”
"I suppose it's about the stories that we say to ourselves about ourselves." –Andrew Scott
In this one-person recasting of the play, however, with external differences rendered a moot point, the audience gets unprecedented, intimate access to the souls of Chekhov’s malcontents. The universality of their concerns as well as their essential shared humanity come into sharp focus. “When you have one person playing all the characters, you look at other things … In a way, you have to ignore what the surface stuff is and look at what's kind of underneath.” It’s all there in the text, said Scott. “Chekhov is kind of the master of that.”
(Photo: Julieta Cervantes)
Vanya also has fun with the inherent goofiness of the central conceit. “This idea of one person doing this whole show is ridiculous,” admits Scott, flashing one of his trademark impish grins. But the play also taps into the “incredible melancholy and searing pain of Chekhov.” And, strange to say this about a one-man show, it also happens to be incredibly sexy: the scenes between the virtuous doctor and another man's trophy wife positively radiate with passion. Scott has astonishing chemistry with his various selves.
Scott revealed that the Vanya team was scouting for a suitable New York venue for the show early last year, when Scott saw Cole Escola’s riotous Oh, Mary! at the Lucille Lortel. (“That was obviously just completely stupendous,” he said of the show.) The venue’s in-your-face intimacy was so clearly the right venue for Vanya. Certainly, in designer Rosanna Vize’s understated set—a table, a couple of chairs, a kitchen wall and a player piano, vaguely suggestive of a bare studio apartment—there is nowhere for Scott to hide as a performer. “There's something about the lo-fi nature of it,” he said. “It's very, very vulnerable. It's a very exposing kind of play.”
He added, “To be in this historic theater but without all the pomp and ceremony, it really, really appeals to me,” he said. “It's nice to just get back to brass tacks and remember why you do it.”
The Dublin-born, London-based Scott is also just excited to be back in New York's West Village. “It's so exciting, particularly downtown, you know?” he said. “This street means a lot to me. I came here as a young man. It's so moving. To be here just feels completely, completely wonderful and I'm just so excited.”
