Mark H. Dold Plays Every Role in “Vanya” With the Audience Seated Onstage in Pittsfield

Through October 24 | Pittsfield, MA

Barrington Stage Company is staging “Vanya,” Simon Stephens’s one-actor adaptation of Chekhov’s “Uncle Vanya,” at the Boyd-Quinson Theater at 30 Union Street. Mark H. Dold plays all the roles, directed by Artistic Director Alan Paul. It opened Sunday, October 11, and runs through October 24, Tuesdays through Sundays, with evening performances at 7:30pm and matinees at 2pm on Saturdays and Sunday, October 18.

BSC describes the show as “a tale of love, art, and attempted murder,” at once comic and tragic, that sets one actor in an intimate bond with the audience. To create it, the audience is seated onstage. BSC reduced seating to 125 for the run, and because of the limited seating the show is not part of the subscription package. Paul called it “a virtuosic tour-de-force” in which “one actor embodies the full spectrum of the human contradiction.”

Chekhov’s play is set on a rural Russian estate, where Vanya and his niece Sonya’s lives are upended by a visit from a retired professor and his young wife. Stephens’s version, co-created with Andrew Scott and director Sam Yates, played to acclaim in London and New York with Scott in the role. The Evening Standard called it “a revelation and a sensation,” and the Washington Post said it was “funny as hell.”

Dold is a BSC associate artist whose company credits include “Harry Clarke,” “Breaking the Code,” and “Freud’s Last Session,” in which he created C.S. Lewis. He also appeared on Broadway in “Absurd Person Singular.”

A Deeper Look discussion is Sunday, October 18 at 11am.

Boyd-Quinson Theater, Barrington Stage Company, 30 Union Street, Pittsfield, MA. Tickets at barringtonstageco.org or 413-242-6411.