Guild Hall Show Puts Twist on Classic Play

Offering a unique perspective on a 115-year-old play, audience members will take their seats onstage during up-close and personal performances of “Uncle Vanya” by Anton Chekhov at in East Hampton. The 55 seats in the midst of the action are expected to provide a varied and authentic perspective of live theater.

“I wanted the characters to define the emotional truth and not project it,” Director Stephen Hamilton said.  The audience will be privy to the lives of the characters in close proximity, and become a part of the production.

“They’ll see the bits of the back stage that they normally won’t see: the back wall, the stage managers on the headphones, and they might even see the actors sitting behind them waiting for their entrance to go on,” he said. “All the bells and whistles.”

“Uncle Vanya” tells the tale of a man whose world is turned upside down when his late sister’s husband – who arrives with his younger wife - announces that he is selling the estate on which Uncle Vanya works.

In addition to directing, Hamilton plays the character of Astrov, who works on the estate with Uncle Vanya. He recently discussed how it feels to juggle the two roles during a production.  “I’ve done it three times before,” he said, “It’s madness.” 

Instead of wearing two hats at the same time, Hamilton joked that it was more like four. “It’s me trying to lead a cast of characters; holding hands, and listening to issues and problems with the characters. And all of a sudden, no one is doing that for you,” he said.

As an admirer of Chekhov’s work, Hamilton chose “Uncle Vanya” for its demands on an actor and his great affinity for the play. “I discovered these characters, and I became so touched by their passion, and their problems … How they view the world and their struggle to find happiness - it seems so current and so contemporary,” he said. 

Although the play was published in 1897, Hamilton spoke of how he and his friends share many of the same issues Chekhov’s characters face such as unrequited love, all consuming work, and existential angst.  The characters also grapple with a “Loss of faith in your fellow human beings or God,” he said. “How do you endure when everything you believe in becomes false?” While these topics are quite heavy, Hamilton says the play is humorous, dry, and subtle.   

Hamilton, co-founder of Bay Street Theatre in Sag Harbor, teaches at Southampton Stony Brook and is a co-director of the Southampton Playwriting Conference, and “Could not have done the play without their support.”

The cast also includes Fred Melamed, Rachel Feldman, Herb Foster, Janet Sarno, Alicia St. Louis, Daniel Becker, Delphi Harrington, and Dominick DeGaetano. The show runs from May 3 to May 20. Tickets are $25 for the public, $23 for members, and $10 for students, available at guildhall.org, theatermania.com, 866-811-4111, or at Guild Hall box office starting May 3, 631-324-4050.