Saw Vanya on 42nd Street (Thanks, Steven!) It was essentially a filmed play. The film is set in modern times, where a group of actors are putting on Anton Chekhov's Uncle Vanya (translated by David Mamet!) in a beautiful, crumbling theater. The actors are all dynamite (with the exception of the guy who played Waffles. I think his readings were too 'stagey.' I could probably do no better mind you, but then I'm not on stage with Wallace Shawn and Julianne Moore.) I was a bit disappointed that the freedom afforded by film wasn't used as much as it is in other stage adaptations (eg: Doubt.) Indeed because this is a play within the context of the film, self-consciously stagey lighting queues and off-stage sound effects are used. There are even inter-act breaks where the actors go out of character and snack and chatter quietly to each other. There's a name for this technique of making the viewer conscious that they're watching a performance, but I don't know what it is.
So, essentially this is really just a play that someone happened to film. But it's a great play (it always shocks me that Chekhov wrote his plays more than a century ago and yet his plays are more relevant to modern life than many films in theaters now are.) and as I've said, the actors are dynamite. It's slightly disappointing as film but as theater, it's glorious. Really, I wish this were more of a thing. If only people would just film and talk about live theater. So many great performances are completely off my radar simply because they were live, and only possibly recorded. Such a pity.
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