A simple arrival-and-departure structure provides the framework for the action, the play beginning with the arrival of urbanite outsiders into the tightly-knit world of a small provincial estate. Professor Serebryakov and his young, beautiful wife, Yelena Andreyevna, have come to stay at the estate legally owned by Sonya, his daughter, who inherited the estate from her mother, his first wife. Together with her dead mother's brother, her uncle Vanya, Sonya has not only managed the estate, but undertaken much of the back-breaking labour that ensures its survival and the revenues that support Serebryakov's smart but parasitic academic life, plus Vanya's mother, Mariya, Telegin (“Waffles”) – an impoverished old friend of the family, and the old family nurse, Marina. Vanya's friend,…
3624 words
Citation: Reid, John. "Diadia Vania". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 21 March 2003 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=11678, accessed 22 November 2024.]
