So what does this all have to do with Uncle Vanya? Well, for starters, anxiety about the future shows up everywhere. And, yeah, we'll go there: people get a little crazy, too. Normal, everyday things take on more importance because they are emblematic of the times. If you can remember way back to the Y2K mania, you'll know that people tend to get antsy at the dawn of a new age. Uncle Vanya was published in 1897 and premiered onstage in 1899, right on the eve of the 20th century. He was into showing the way the Russian upper classes on the eve of the Russian Revolution were just kind of waiting for their way of life to end.

Chekhov is famous for the way he creates a realistic, even mundane mood rather than just slamming you over the head with fantastic ideas or dramatic conflicts. He was a medical doctor who lived from 1860 to 1904 and wrote masterpiece short stories and plays in his spare time. Now, bucking tradition was one of Chekhov's hobbies. It's sort of like Seinfeld in 19th-century Russia. See, Chekhov's play is about wasted time and unrequited love (sound like high school, anyone?), and it bucks tradition by not really being about any great event or super climactic moment. Unless that botched murder plot takes place in Anton Chekhov's Uncle Vanya, in which all the characters pretty much just say 'meh' and go on with their lives. There's nothing like a botched murder plot to make audiences sit up and take notice. Anton Chekhov's Uncle Vanya: Play Introduction

Chekhov play uncle