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The production, which drew much praise in Sydney last autumn, stars Oscar-winning actress Cate Blanchett and was adapted by her husband Andrew Upton.
Audiences like Chekhov because the work shows a view of humanity that is harsh and bitter, but at the same time, the performance is not without tenderness and joy, Ascher said after the performance in the Kennedy Center?s Eisenhower Theatre.
Asked if the American audience did not take the performance a little too light-heartedly, Ascher said audiences in Australia responded in the same way.
?The audience laughed a lot during the performance, but their smiles froze at the end. And that?s actually good. A lot of people laugh during my Chekhov productions in Hungary too. What is a bit surprising in Australia and America is that a lot of little jokes get big laughs, funny bits for which I think a smile would be enough. But, well, this is a bit more naive audience, and I think that is entirely alright. I think everything came across as we wanted it.?
A piece published in The Washington Post before the premiere highlighted the irony of an Australian company with prize-winning actors bringing to stage a Chekhov piece directed by a Hungarian who speaks neither fluent English nor Russian.
?The reality of the matter is that the director naturally has to understand the text exactly. It?s one thing that we spoke English in the pub, but the importance for me of the precision of stage instructions required an interpreter,? Ascher said.
Not only the language of the stage instruction proved a challenge, the language of the piece did as well. But all challengers were successfully surmounted.
?Naturally, we worked a lot with the new Australian translation. The translation is modern because it marks a return to Chekhov. The original Chekhov texts are modern and frivolous. The Hungarian or even the English versions soften them up a bit, dressing them up in a more social or poetic form. Chekhov?s language is rough, spiky, short and efficient. The dramaturge Anna Lengyel and I successfully explained this to Cate Blanchett?s husband, Andrew Upton, who adapted the piece, and who cannot speak Russian. That?s why we sat down with another English translation and the original Russian and went through the text line by line so we wouldn?t be making anything up, but returning to the original material in every sense.?
Ascher said the Australians wanted him to return in two or three years and he was thinking of doing a production of Beckett instead of Chekhov. The production of ?Uncle Vanya? could get a second life if it is invited to New York next year as promised, he added.
?Uncle Vanya? is showing in Washington until August 27.
Source: Hungarian News Agency (MTI)
