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WhenMarin Irelandyells, cries, or laughs, it fills the room from top to bottom.
Not that any of those are that hard in this particular room.
Ireland just finished starring in a Jack Serios production of Anton ChekhovsUncle Vanya.
Sonya is a hard worker, a plain girl, and an occasional emotional wreck.
Ireland vacillates between various forms of hysterics: crying, laughing, and running through the tiny space.
But the best part of it is when we all exist somewhere in between.
Were like,No, youre here.
Were all here together.Thats what makes it feel like church.
It was a weeklong Chekhov retreat at this house from the 1800s.
It was full expressionistic insanity.
It was where I really learned what Chekhov was.I didUncle Vanyawith Bill Irwin as Vanya there.
[Earlier this year], I went to see Irwin inEndgameand we were chit-chatting.
Somehow, Vanya came up and he said, Now Id like to play the professor.
The next day I ran into Will Brill, who I didnt know well.
He mentioned, Last night I did this reading ofUncle Vanya.
And all I was thinking was, Yeah, but who is Sonya?
And they were like, The guy who read it cant be isnt available.
So actually thatd be great.
So he said, All right, if youre serious, we do need somebody.
I wasnt even that close with Will Brill.
We built it there.
I felt so much more exposed all along because of the proximity and imagining it all going down.
It was so free.
The wildest stuff were things in that space where we first performed it.
We had some umbrellas out there in case it was raining.
There was one bathroom for all the audience and us.
There is a genuine family feeling to all of that.
We care for each other and really attempt to connect with the play and the audiences.
Thats what we all missed for the last few years.
Thats something I brought up when I talked to Jack at first.
I was trying to sell myself, so I said, I feel like I really need this.
I really need this play and this part, I need to say that last speech.
I need to connect with why we do this.
What attracted you to Sonya?Ive had Sonyas final speech stuck to my wall for 20 years.
Its like a prayer.
This one is slightly different.
Every time Im in a tough place, that speech returns to my consciousness.
Youve just got to keep working.
Its not like anything else.
Until Yelena and the professor show up, this once a month hang works.
Thats part of why theres so much elasticity in these plays.
But shes not a fool.
This isnt a play about some strangers who knock on the door and show up at the house.
This is a play about really old feelings, old grief and new grief, and unresolved feelings.
Theres a sexiness to your version of the scene between her and Astrov.
How did that develop?Sonya is running this farm.
Shes very much in her body in one way and not in another way.
So I was like,Well then lets kind of go for that.
Lets make her deeply physicalized.She almost doesnt talk at all in that scene.
He does all the talking.
Shes a great listener and thats incredibly sexy.
Im like,Of course he felt like this went great.
Of course he loves her.
And I was like, Nope.
We were making each other laugh.
And then, as we were talking it through, we were like, Well, why not?
But now, I dont think she ever gave one thought to her physical appearance before Yelena showed up.
It doesnt have to be a story about somebody who always thought she was an ugly person.
Then Astrov says, If your Yelena wanted to, she could turn my head.
This is so intimate.I get to be surprised by it.
Maybe he thinks Im beautiful.What if I can keep all of that alive until he says Yelena?
And then Im just like,Right.
Thats beauty.Sonyas able to find ways to keep hoping for things.
Theyre literally just suspended, vibrating.
One version of that with Sonya could be hope and despair or hopelessness.
She thinks she knows what he is going to say to Yelena.
Maybe she thinks,Fuck, now I know Im not beautiful.
Shes running a farm.Am I pretty?is a luxurious thought.
By Act Three, theyre both in crisis over it.
They were getting along just fine, not thinking about every day.
Its a midlife crisis.
That also makes me think of the19th centurys invention of boredom.
No one was able to be bored before, and then Yelena comes in, bored.
Theres a luxury to that.Absolutely.
There are a million things.
You just feel so exposed.
And this girl feels embarrassed.
I feel embarrassed as Sonya a lot.
And it was really hard calibrating the outburst in Act One.
She feels so transparent to me and its just so embarrassing.
I decided to be like,Well, Im just going to go for broke.
Its her house, she doesnt give a shit if shes having a big feeling.
These Chekhov plays are huge asks emotionally.
Theres no cheating in these plays.
They bring every actor everywhere to our knees.
Especially because everybodys right there.
The emotional jags that these characters make only make sense if you need itthatbad.
Your final monologue has come up as a gigantic part of your life.
I have to imagine it was intimidating to create your own interpretation.
as opposed to What is my performance?
I tried not to make too many big decisions about it before we worked through the whole play.
And then it was a lot of,Lets just play it out and see what you discover.
For me, theres a beautiful thing in that the play is calledUncle Vanya.
And hes only her uncle.
Its not just her or him, but its her looking at him.
They both get completely smashed, heartbroken, almost simultaneously.
Act Four is them coming back together.
And I think of it very much as him being her reason for going on.
The speech is for him.
Thats different every night.
Its a conversation between us.
If I tried to come up with something before we were doing it every night, then thats artifice.
I just learn the lines, think the thoughts, and then its all about him.
Just get him through.
So you relinquish control to David?Yeah.
I only keep talking.
Sonya has listened to everybody the whole play.
When she wants to talk about Astrov, she tells Yelena to talk to her about him.
She doesnt have those words.
Im looking for that every night.
In your interpretation, she never had to have those thoughts before, right?
Because she had hope.Act One for Sonya is a great day.
They went on this hike.
He seemed to have a good time.
Hes going to stay over?
Things are a little haywire, but shes holding it all together.
And then we have a month in between, and it just sucks after that.
Now, nobodys helping her.
Because the alternative to playing her as a fool is for her to be naive.Yeah.
The youthfulness in her is why shes open.
She hasnt lived in the city.
Why would she feel guarded?
What is she guarding from?
And now she feels its because shes ugly.
But I think Im glad for her that she grows.
Its part of just living.
If they asked you to come back and do this production again, you would?Yes.
I would do it all the time.
Id do it forever.
These plays kick your butt.
But the alchemy of it is really special.
This is the dream when youre a kid, you want to do Chekhov in New York City.
But its a huge gift.
These things dont come around that often.
This interview has been updated, edited, and condensed for clarity.
