(Ben Brantley’s article appeared in The New York Times, 7/22.)
Love has no dignity — no, not a shred — in the Sydney Theater Company’s glorious “Uncle Vanya,” which runs (and lopes and dances desperately) only through Saturday at City Center. In Tamas Ascher’s heart-bruising production, part of Lincoln Center Festival 2012, people who reach out to touch someone are likely to find their balance in jeopardy. An attempted kiss can trip them up as effectively as any banana peel, while gentle caresses somehow turn into body slams that knock over their recipients like ninepins. Eros makes klutzes of us all, it seems, and no one is immune.