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Chekhov famously fell out with Stanislavski when the latter directed 'The Cherry Orchard' as a tragedy. On that basis, he'd have loved Lucy Bailey, whose comic production of his 'Uncle Vanya' makes it seem like a higgledy-piggledy Benny Hill chase sequence.
Deep in rural Russia, bailiff Vanya pursues Yelena, the visiting landowner's wife. So does his friend Dr Astrov, himself chased in turn by Sonya, Yelena's stepdaughter. Bailey's emphasis on comedy suits the men better than the women.
Worlds away from 'Game of Thrones', Iain Glen's lethargic Vanya and William Houston's Astrov laugh to stave off the ennui of country life. They fight melancholy with mockery and so become clowns. Sometimes, they're as absurd as the 'Godot' boys; sometimes even as woebegone as Withnail.
Yelena and Sonya (Lucinda Millward and Charlotte Emmerson), by contrast, are like trapped birds for ever staring out of their cages, longing for escape. William Dudley's set pours light in on them from the outside.
However, Chekhov's pathos gets scuppered. None of them are really, desperately serious about love. It, too, is about killing dead time; a long summer's idle folly. Whether chased or chasing, they all seem victims of circumstance, rather than truly tragic figures.
Nonetheless, this is a fascinating twist on a classic. Mike Poulton's new version – his fourth – is gruffer than most but still eloquent, and Bailey ensures there are plenty of details to occupy any eagle-eyed psychological detective.