Alexandr Valdimirovitch Serebryakov, an elderly professor, and his beautiful and much younger wife, Yelena Andreyevna, return from the city to their country estate, which once belonged to Serebryakov’s late first wife. The estate is managed by Serebryakov’s daughter, Sonya, and his brother-in-law, Ivan Petrovitch Voynitsky (the titular “Uncle Vanya”). Voynitsky’s friend, the country doctor Mihail Lvovitch Astrov, goes to and from the estate, and is bored with his life. Sonya has feelings for Astrov, while both Astrov and Voynitsky compete for the affections of Yelena.

Voynitsky, nearing middle age, feels life has passed him by, and deeply resents Serebryakov, believing that the management of the estate has thwarted his ambitions for his life. As the play progresses, these simmering resentments soon boil over.

Chekhov first published Uncle Vanya in 1897, and it was first performed in 1899 in Moscow. It’s a heavily reworked version of The Wood Demon , a play Chekhov wrote a decade earlier. Uncle Vanya is one of Chekhov’s most highly regarded plays, and is still regularly performed in theaters throughout the world.