All Over

All Over is a play by Edward Albee, written in 1970, a few years after his most famous play Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? This play, however, did not show the depth, character appeal, or connections that many of his other plays have. It was hard to read, and probably even harder to relate to onstage.

All Over, like many of Albee’s plays, takes place in one single space, a bedroom in an expensive home. At the start of the play, all the actors are onstage. We quickly learn that they are sitting and waiting for a man to die. The characters are only referred to by their relationship to this man: the Wife, the Mistress, the Daughter, the Son, the Best Friend, the Doctor, and the Nurse. We never learn their names, and we never find out the identity of the man, who is apparently a very rich and famous person. There is very little plot; the characters are merely waiting for this man to die, and as they wait they argue, complain and reminisce about their lives. The dialogue is almost like a series of monologues, interspersed with them arguing and complaining. As the play progresses, we get a better sense about how each person feels about the next, and how they feel about dealing with the issue of mortality; however, we never see these characters for who they truly are. Only at moments of outbursts and screaming do we see their true natures. The relationship between the Wife and her children is the most explored. We begin to understand how unhappy she has become as a wife and mother, and how her treatment of her children has caused them to be unappealing, angry, and weak as well. As the play closes, nothing has really changed since the beginning, save the Wife’s realization that she has only loved her husband and has wanted to be loved by him, and that this has made her unhappy: "All we've done…is think about ourselves. What will become of me?" The play ends with the Doctor entering and informing them of the man’s death, with no reaction from the characters.

I’m not sure if I liked this play. I liked the fact that I had to really pay attention to what the characters had to say in order to garner information. However, I did not like the fact that none of the characters were appealing or sympathetic. The most interesting character was the Wife, but she was a horrible person, and completely unfeeling. It would be interesting to see this performed onstage, but I feel like it would be a hard sell.

Uncle Vanya

Ah, Chekhov….

Chekhov is one of those playwrights that I really need to see his work onstage to fully understand and appreciate it. I remember reading (or perhaps fake-reading) several of his plays in college, and being rather bored by them. Yes, he was a prolific writer of his time. Yes, his work influenced Stanislavsky, the most important actor and director of that time. But I just honestly couldn’t get into them. It wasn’t until after I saw a production of The Cherry Orchard and directed a scene from The Seagull that I began to see the merit in Chekhov’s work. Since then, I have seen a couple other productions, and even though I usually feel depressed and exhausted after seeing them, I realize that Chekhov was a good writer, and thus begins my foray into re-reading his plays.

In the forward to the edition that I read (Dover Thrift Editions), the editor notes that Chekhov insisted in his mature years that his dramas were comedies, not tragedies. It also stated that Chekhov thought that Stanislavsky never achieved the “light touch” that he craved in their presentations. With this in mind, I tried to read Uncle Vanya not as a comedy per se, but not as a heavy and depressing drama. A lot to ponder. Uncle Vanya takes place on a rural estate in 19^th century Russia. This estate belonged to the late wife of Professor Serebrakov, who is visiting with his new and much younger wife, Helena. Living at the estate are Madame Voitskaya, the mother of his late wife; Vanya, the brother of his late wife; and Sonia, his daughter by his first marriage. Also staying at the estate are Astrov, a local doctor; Telegin, a poor landowner and godfather to Sonia; and Marina, an old nurse.

Serebrakov and Helena have come to the estate because of his poor health and declining income. However, their arrival has completely uprooted the tranquil lifestyle of the people who live there. Vanya, who is in love with Helena, constantly professes his love for her and his loathing of her husband, who has, in his mind, held him back from doing bigger and better things. Helena is unhappy with her lifestyle and is bored from living in the estate. Sonia confides in her stepmother that she is in love with the doctor, but we find out that he is in love with Helena, and she is also a little in love with him back. The play is saturated with unrequited love and misdirected idealism, and as the play progresses, the characters’ weaknesses and inabilities to communicate lead to frustration and misery. Towards the end, even though most of the characters, particularly Vanya, are still unhappy, there is a glimmer of hope that things will get better if they just move on and continue with their lives.

I really can’t see why Chekhov would choose to categorize this play as a comedy, but it was an interesting way of reading it. Perhaps in its original form, the play The Wood Demon, this was more apparent. Although nothing really changes from the beginning to the end, there is a sense that something (although what, I don’t know) has been accomplished. This play is a good study on how mood is more effective in a play than character development or action.

Take that, Chekhov!