Darling Sonya

This is a four-person workshop of a six-person adaptation of a nine-person play by Anton Chekhov. We've been working on it, part-time, for about a month. I am extremely grateful to everyone who has contributed to the process.  When I first read Chekhov's Uncle Vanya, a prescient and deceptively-relevant masterpiece from 1897, I knew I would eventualy play the role. This past year, I became obsessed with the play as a reflection of many aspects of the present. Perhaps that's a testament to Chekhov's genius, or perhaps that's just because I was about to turn 47.  Two of my uncles died at 47. Despite Vanya's protestations, there is much more life to be had beyond that age. So, I began life after 47 by adapting the play, and building a company to produce it. When the pandemic isolated us all, and the fear and uncertainty took root, I worried more for my children and parents than anyone else. Having children is an optimistic and hopeful endeavor.  None of the living characters in Uncle Vanya have any. Like others, I have blamed my parents and their generation for many of my own problems, and those of our current culture. Sadly, due to the limitations of this workshop production, their story is not well-enough represented here. They are better served  and well-defended in the longer version of this adaptation, which I hope to be able to present later this year. The only child in the play is Sonya, Vanya's niece. She is not an orphan, but her parents are invisible, and she fears growing invisible herself.  Like my Gen Z students though, and my own young children, she is a survivor. She will not lose hope. Though her isolation, her love,  and her despair wreak havoc on her mental health, she endures. Though her life is, and will continue to be full of pain and disappointment, she persists, and grows wise. One day her suffering will end. For those reasons, I have tried to more  prominently place her in the center of the narrative. Though this play is everyone's story, and perhaps even Sonya's arc is not fully realized in this workshop, her journey is perhaps the most needed for us, right now.  More life. -Alex Fox ​