ABSTRACT
Probably ‘Uncle Vanya,’ which was acted at the Cort last evening, is the least interesting of Chekhov's major dramas. But like the others it is eminently actable under sensitive direction. After a year's absence from Broadway Jed Harris has returned to stage a luminously beautiful performance of this intangible drama and to reawaken an old confidence in his uncanny preceptions. Producing Chekhov requires more than anything else the ability to translate limpness into limpidity, and to see the high comedy where most observers see merely the gloom of futility. With a cast including such variegated talents as those of Lillian Gish, Walter Connolly, Osgood Perkins, Joanna Roos, Kate Mayhew and Eugene Powers, Mr. Harris has succeeded brilliantly. The simple generalities of a genius emerge as detached wisdom and beauty, leavened with the humours of compassion.
