National Theatre Live: Vanya

Andrew Scott is earth-shattering in this extraordinary performance of Vanya, seamlessly morphing from one character to the next, until the only character in the play becomes an amalgam of all of the human tragedy and pain and anger and despair, in a myriad of embodiments. This is a performance like none I have ever seen. Every character becomes just a facet of a single creature, a hybrid of Vanya, and Sonya, and Alexander and all the rest. Andrew Scott is merciless in high-jacking your attention, and your emotions, your entire being, and submerging you inside this extraordinary Chekov tragedy. Andre Scott's acting is a gift for anyone taking the trouble to see.

To enjoy this version of Uncle Vanya, two conditions are essential:

• to be familiar with Anton Chekhov play;
• to be familiar with Andrew Scott manner to build his characters - his Hamlet can be useful prepair -.

Because , at first sight, it is a provocative version- one actor plays all the characters . The manner to do that is not real surprising - the accent on humor sides of each character was present in other adaptations. And Mr. Scott knows to use each nuance in fair - precise manner, fair reminding the play itself and its versions.

But, obvious, it is only an experiment, perfect for Andrew Scott who use, in brilliant way, entire liberty offered by lines , meanings of words and context.

Iloved the final of play, maybe little strident in this case but beautiful crafted.

So, no doubts, Andrew Scott deserves his Vanya and this play is the precious pledge for it.

I believe it would be correct to say that this is far away from a regular play and if you want a classical Chekhov play and the story then this might not be it. As I've seen it now I realise how much it is about Andrew Scott and what an actor can do. This is the real reason everyone should go watch it, in case if you want to be a part of the experiment and see how Andrew gives a brilliant performance.

Especially since he is playing like 3 female characters and 3-4 male characters? I must admit that as I'm not a native English speaker and I'm not very familiar with the original material then I really needed to pay attention and even though Andrew made it quite simple to understand the character change sometimes I could have drifted away as at one point one of the character states as well.

Took a while for me to care. In the beginning they were all boring, unpleasant, pathetic or vile. The only good thing about it was Andrew Scott's performance and the occasional humour. Which is what makes it a four star to be honest.

I don't remember much of Uncle Vanya, if anything, but I remember I felt so sorry for him. This play brings everything closer to modern day and the characters feel diminished and much less worthy.

Anyway, I liked the last half hour, when I could actually connect to and feel for some of these people. But truly the high marks are for the performance. I don't know if this gimmick was really needed and I might have empathized more if I had individual actors for the other roles.

Wow. An amazing night in Liverpool. After seeing Vanya on stage I was not sure it would transfer to the big screen. How wrong I was. Andrew Scott's performance is as beautiful and heartfelt on screen as it was in the theatre. Watching it again transported me back to the theatre performance and the camera work brought the excellence of Scott's acting into sharp focus, I cannot remember what I paid for the theatre tickets but with train fares and other expenses it was in the hundreds. Full marks for the National Theatre for making this master class in acting and direction available to all, everywhere and at an affordable price. A must see. I am going again!