It's a perfect blend of the 悲劇の and absurd: Toby Jones' wonderfully funny Vanya in Uncle Vanya at the Harold Pinter Theatre is the real 支払う／賃金-off
Uncle Vanya
Harold Pinter Theatre, London? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Until May 2, 2hrs 30mins
率ing: 
Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya should have been played by John Cleese in his prime. The sarcasm and his manic 爆発s make Vanya a ロシアの 原型 Basil Fawlty. That said, Toby Jones is terrific in the part.?
He’s withering and hilarious, his hair like a wheat field after a 台風.
Vanya has been running the 広い地所 thanklessly for his brother-in-法律, Serebryakov (Ciar?n Hinds), a pompous professor who has returned with Yelena, his glamorous, much younger new wife, and with 計画（する）s to flog the 所有物／資産／財産 and buy a 郊外住宅 in Finland.?
The unmarried Vanya boils at the 不正 of it all.
The 生産／産物 is decked out with a 罰金 cast, with Dearbhla Molloy (above) as Vanya’s stately but bohemian mother
Yelena (Rosalind Eleazar) has realised she’s married a 衝突，墜落ing bore and latches on to Astrov, the handsome, アル中患者 doctor (Richard Armitage) with a passion for trees. Vanya 落ちるs for Yelena but he’s got no hope; never had.?
Sonya, Vanya’s niece ? played heartbreakingly by Aimee Lou 支持を得ようと努めるd ? is utterly smitten with Astrov, who barely even notices her. The 行う／開催する／段階 is thus 始める，決める for a 巨大（な） bonfire of romantic illusions.
Conor McPherson’s 見解／翻訳／版 of this 1898 play intrusively uses the feminist word ‘機関’ and 追加するs the F-word. I wasn’t sure, either, what the director Ian Rickson was trying to do with this dimly lit 見解／翻訳／版, which has characters 配達するing speeches as bolted-on, un-Chekhovian soliloquies.
Sonya, Vanya’s niece ? played heartbreakingly by Aimee Lou 支持を得ようと努めるd (above) ? is utterly smitten with Astrov, who barely even notices her
But the 生産／産物 is decked out with a 罰金 cast, with Dearbhla Molloy as Vanya’s stately but bohemian mother, Mariya, Anna Calder-Marshall as the old retainer, Nana and Peter Wight as a futile 広い地所 従業員.
Rosalind Eleazar’s Yelena ? usually little more than languidly sexy ? is a powerful, yearning presence here.
But Toby Jones’s wonderfully funny Vanya is the real 支払う／賃金-off. When he comes on with a gun, he 解雇する／砲火／射撃s at the author of his woes and 行方不明になるs ? twice ? before 低迷ing in self-disgust that he can’t even shoot straight.?
It’s a perfect blend of the 悲劇の and the absurd, as the play ? and the century ? の近くにs in on the lot of them.
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The Welkin
Lyttelton 行う／開催する／段階, 国家の Theatre, London? Until May 23, 2hrs 50mins
率ing: 
Terrible 田舎の accents 警報! We’re in East Anglia, 1759. The cast does a 半分-audible 地元の dialect that’s beyond awful. To err is human but to ‘ahhrrr’ is いっそう少なく forgivable.
The story? The noose を待つs a young woman （刑事）被告 of 殺人. She （人命などを）奪う，主張するs she’s 妊娠している and, if so, her 宣告，判決 must be 減刑する／通勤するd. Is she lying? A ‘陪審／陪審員団 of matrons’ decides her 運命／宿命.
Instead of a gripping courtroom 演劇, Lucy Kirk-支持を得ようと努めるd’s play is 現実に an eventless, 隠すd critique of today’s patriarchy done in Poldark 衣装s. At one point a crow comes 負かす／撃墜する the chimney, 原因（となる）ing an 爆発.?
The ladies in grey are covered 長，率いる to toe in 黒人／ボイコット すす.
There’s a 匂いをかぐ of some 証拠 of the excused 存在 妊娠している when Sally Poppy (Ria Zmitrowicz, above with June Watson) 表明するs 黒人／ボイコット milk
Maxine 頂点（に達する） 長，率いるs up the sweary cast as the （刑事）被告’s supportive midwife. There’s a 匂いをかぐ of some 証拠 when the （刑事）被告 Sally Poppy (Ria Zmitrowicz) 表明するs 黒人／ボイコット milk.?
Perhaps it’s all that すす. More baffling is why these Georgian women suddenly sing Kate Bush’s Running Up That Hill.
Director James Macdonald stuffs the evening with fancy visuals but it doesn’t help.
Flatter than Norfolk.
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< span class="mol-style-medium mol-style-bold event-ccox">The Sunset 限られた／立憲的な
Boulevard Theatre, London? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Until February 29, 1hr 30mins
率ing: 
A 黒人／ボイコット guy stops a white professor from jumping under a subway train and takes him home to his Manhattan tenement. There’s a Bible on the （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する. The suicidal prof asks him: ‘Tell me, do you think Jesus is in this room?’?
The answer comes: ‘No, I don’t think Jesus is in this room. I know he is in this room.’
What follows is a 支えるd 口論する人 about God and the 目的 of living. American 小説家 Cormac McCarthy’s wordy play often feels like a talking 調書をとる／予約する. But Terry Johnson’s 生産／産物 has emotional clout ? and it’s 大部分は because Gary Beadle (ex-EastEnders) is so 控訴，上告ing and funny as the reborn ex-反対／詐欺; while Jasper Britton exhales despair as the professor who’s so envious of the dead.
Terry Johnson’s 生産／産物 has emotional clout ? and it’s 大部分は because Gary Beadle (ex- EastEnders) is so 控訴，上告ing and funny; while Jasper Britton exhales despair as the professor
True, the ending is an almighty downer. But this short, brilliantly 行為／法令／行動するd 戦う／戦い of hope versus futility has moments of really piercing insight.
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Beckett ３倍になる 法案
Jermyn Street Theatre, London? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?Until Saturday, 2hrs 15mins
率ing:
Samuel Beckett is gloomier than a 全世界の-warming 予測（する）. But these three short plays 得る，とらえる you by the lapels.
In Krapp’s Last Tape, James Hayes plays an old, failed writer hunched over a tape recorder, on which he listens to his 30-year-old 音声部の diary. I last saw Krapp wonderfully played by John 傷つける.?
With Hayes, too, you can almost see the dust of an unlived life 注ぐing from his mouth.
Shameless 星／主役にする David Threlfall is splendid in tweeds opposite Niall Buggy in The Old Tune, a garrulous, delightful Irish piece about two oldsters sitting on a （法廷の）裁判
Niall Buggy is in Eh Joe, sitting on an unmade bed, 注目する，もくろむs filled with horror as a taped 発言する／表明する (Lisa Dwan’s evocative brogue) 告発する／非難するs him of 乱用 of a young woman. Somehow he was complicit in her 悲惨.?
He says not a word but his magnificently haunted 直面する tells this terrible, あいまいな tale.
Shameless 星／主役にする David Threlfall is splendid in tweeds opposite Buggy in The Old Tune, a garrulous, delightful Irish piece about two oldsters sitting on a （法廷の）裁判 貿易（する）ing 欠陥のある reminiscences. You wonder if Beckett ever thought of giving it to the Two Ronnies.
In Trevor Nunn’s 生産／産物, each play feels as 簡潔な／要約する as a birthday candle and unforgettably etched.
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The Sugar Syndrome
Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond? ? ? ? ? ? ? Until February 22, 2hrs 20mins
率ing:
This is the first 復活 of Lucy Prebble’s 2003 debut, and while it feels smaller-規模 than later work such as the big 攻撃する，衝突する ENRON, it is just as curious and human.
We’re 支援する in the dial-up internet years of the Noughties, when 17-year-old Dani 捜し出すs solace in chatrooms from a troubled home life and an eating disorder. One 接触する is thirtysomething Tim, who 最初 thinks Dani’s a boy; he has a 前科 for paedophilia.?
But this isn’t a play about grooming ? Dani takes the lead in their friendship, naively believing she can help him.
数字表示式の life has 発展させるd radically since the play was written, but Oscar Toeman’s 生産／産物 nails the fact that 関係s are knotty (Alexandra Gilbreath as Dani's mother Jan, above)
As Dani, Jessica Rhodes has a 誘発する that 作品 井戸／弁護士席 with Prebble’s punchy script. 数字表示式の life has 発展させるd radically since the play was written, but Oscar Toeman’s 生産／産物 nails the fact that 関係s are knotty, online or offline.
Gwendolyn Smith?????
