Ideals, Indulgences Link ‘Uncle Vanya’

Presupposing as it does the leisure to indulge in it, ennui seems an enviable state, especially in Flora Plumb’s staging of Chekhov’s “Uncle Vanya” at Theatre 40. Plumb exploits the tormented indolence of the privileged classes, artfully balancing the melancholic with the nostalgic in her languorous, only occasionally sluggish staging.

Idleness begets dissension in this fractious family of pre-Revolutionary Russian aristocrats. The hitherto idealistic Vanya (Stephen Tobolowsky) has experienced a midlife epiphany that has left him volubly disgusted with his life. In Vanya’s case, self-disgust is closely linked with lust--the rule rather than the exception among this passionate group, whose complicated romantic interminglings add the illusion of meaning to their endlessly discussed and much lamented purposelessness.

In Tobolowsky’s wonderfully eccentric performance, Vanya emerges as a towering, shambling fool whose ineffectual querulousness masks great inner force. Ann Hearn is quietly splendid as Sonya, the plain, practical workhorse of the family. And Robert MacKenzie and Kathrin Nicholson strike genuine sexual sparks as would-be lovers separated by convention. Carin Jacobs’ fine costumes complete Plumb’s finely detailed rendering, which, despite a few colorless exchanges, is a miniaturist’s masterpiece.

* “Uncle Vanya,” Theatre 40, 241 Moreno Drive, Beverly Hills. Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 2 p.m. Ends Dec. 22. $15-$18. (213) 466-1767. Running time: 2 hours, 25 minutes.