Vanya - Andrew Scott one-man show - Richmond & Duke of Yorks

Well, the lad doesn't lack confidence .. Initially, I did wonder if this might tread on Tom Littler's feet but not the case.

I don't much care for monologues -inc. Scott's Sea Wall at the Old Vic - but, obv., curious to know what he plans to do here in, presumably, a solo-but-not-monologue-performance-piece. Interesting.

It surely isn't going to be some anti-Putin platform: please don't ar$e around with Chekhov

So... having never seen one of these types of shows, how does it work. Do they actually play every character in the play? Jumping between voices/mannerisms etc?

I've seen one-person shows, but only when they were written to be for one person. If it's clearly supposed to be a number of characters played by a full cast like Macbeth for example I think I'd find myself just sitting there wishing I was watching a full production.

When Tommy Cooper used to do them he’d put on a different hat for each character.

I completely understand this point of view. But having seen a few "Uncle Vanyas," for me, it's precisely having the one actor playing all the parts that is intriguing to me.

Especially since Andrew Scott is one of the best stage actors there is, able to convey emotion like almost noone else.

In particular, having one person embody three such different types of masculinity that are Vanya (defeated caustic childlike whiner), Astrov (romantic wise alpha male) and the Professor (pedantic insensitive father figure) stands to be fascinating and revealing.

For me, my main concern about this is how difficult it will be to maintain the tragicomic tone throughout, so that we can laugh and cry and be enlightened all at once:

It would be easy to get alienated from the real horrors at the heart of the play and laugh raucously at everything from a distance, and it would be equally easy to get overly serious, to avert the above criticism, and miss laughing at ourselves, which for me, is a great deal of the point of the play: you laugh morbidly so you can survive the horrors.

If anyone can get this right, it will be Andrew Scott, who can find the heart of characters so well, and reveal everything that is funny and everything that is tragic about the human condition simultaneously.

This could easily be a season highlight, I feel, precisely because one person stands in for the whole human condition, as we all do in our own lives.

Fingers crossed.

I don't know he is playing the full cast, or script. The title is just 'Vanya'. My thought was it might be chiefly an exploration of the character.

You have made me want to see it now, Steve!

stevesometime my colleague was just talking about this coincidentally. Here's the link she was looking at: www.atgtickets.com/campaigns/win-tickets-to-see-vanya/

One front stalls ticket is for sale at Noticeboard if anyone's interested, Richmond run.

I happened to be online, so I've deleted it for you.

I have just been to see this tonight. Andrew Scott is clearly very talented and this is an interesting take - and was the first attempt, so I don't intend to be overly critical, because there were many positives.. but I thought this stayed on the surface. It's partly the fact that half the audience were in hysterics at inappropriate parts and because I suppose the amount of characters he played meant that no real depth was reached for any of them. But it still was enjoyable and had a lot of potential, presumably they will review and cut a few bits and build on character development a bit more.

It reminded me of Ian M and Patrick S doing Waiting for Godot, which took one of the great plays/my favourite and turned it into pantomime. And who can blame them when you have an audience that just wants to see actors they love and want to have a fun night out.

If, in Vanya, they lost some of the purposeful gags early on it might temper it slightly and earth one of the great plays on the subject of the human condition.

But Andrew Scott definitely drew a younger audience and that is a good thing. I love the way he distinguished characters with various mannerisms and objects, and will see it again when it's further down the run. A very impressive performance overall.