Chichester Cinema at New Park
Vanya on 42nd Street
New York actors rehearse Chekhov's ‘Uncle Vanya’ in a rundown theatre.
The stage director Andre Gregory and the actor Wallace Shawn, who collaborated on "My Dinner with Andre" (1981), gathered other actors and began to perform "Vanya" here and there around New York, in small theatres or even in the apartments of friends. Any room would do.
They were more interested in the words, using a translation by David Mamet that makes the dialogue both conversational and somehow more formal, more thoughtful, than ordinary conversation. One night Louis Malle, the French filmmaker who made ‘My Dinner with Andre,’ came to see the work in progress, and suggested that he film it.
So the old friends were reunited after a decade in 1994 for the filming. ‘Vanya on 42nd Street’ may be the most innovative and successful straight film adaptation of any play and for those seeking an amazing stage-to-film epiphany, there is no better choice.
USA · 1994 · Louis Malle · 119min
