Uncle Vanya feels relatable in Annie Baker’s modern adaptation

Anton Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya has long been the reference point of many jokes in popular culture. One of Chekhov’s most well-known works, Vanya is a twisting tragicomedy surrounding many members of a family and the servants and neighbors in their orbit. It is a story about lost opportunities, chances not taken, and the cost of a life lived—often tied to rantings by Vanya. To be fair, Vanya isn’t even the central character, yet he is the titular one. In Annie Baker’s 2012 modern language adaptation, we see a more relatable family depicted in terms we better understand, yet their internal dramas remain as absurd and dramatic as ever. Uncle VanyaThrough 11/22: Fri–Sat 7:30 PM, Sun 2:30 PM; also Sat 11/21 2:30 PM (understudy performance); Edge of the Wood Theatre, Edgebrook Community Church, 6736 N. Loleta, 773-775-1140, edgeofthewood.com, $29, $15 students under 18 But in the production at Edge of the Wood Theatre, directed by Stacey Lind, that absurdity gets taken a bit too far at times.

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