Uncle Vanya

Uncle Vanya is a play by Russian playwright Anton Chekhov. It was first published in 1897 and received its Moscow première in 1899 in a production by the Moscow Art Theatre. The play portrays the visit of an elderly professor and his glamorous, much younger second wife, Yeléna, to the rural estate that supports their urban lifestyle. Two friends, Vanya, brother of the Professor's late first wife, who has long managed the estate, and Astrov, the local Doctor, both fall under Yelena's spell while bemoaning the ennui of their provincial existence. Uncle Vanya is widely considered one of Chekhov's most important plays and has been praised as one of Chekhov's most important dramatic works ever since.