This Uncle Vanya is where fans of Anton Chekhov and the brilliant adult animated series Family Guy intersect. That’s hard to imagine; sounds ridiculous but it works fabulously. Mary Angley has done some audacious tweaking and brought us a fresh, imaginative and spontaneous play. Chekhov is the backbone with themes that work as well today as in 1897: existential dread of a wasted life, unrequited love, environmental angst, resentment and familial tensions. Mary Angley and the Papermouth Theatre’s creative team and cast have cleverly injected ASMR – and soap – into this Russian soapie.
They throw a lot more at it and it could have become a mad, sloppy Fringe show but the writing is so cleverly crisp, the performances terrific and the direction precise.The satire is aimed at TikTok dopamine hits, instant social media gratification, distractions, the boredom and loneliness of people today when there has never been so much information and hyper-connectivity. For example, the cast had no trouble getting audience members to shorten Chekhov’s monologues by hitting the magic ‘Fast Forward the Monologue’ button.
Throw in a creative powerpoint presentation to keep the action moving, a simple but hilarious quiz segment to cover for a scene change, hilarious physical comedy, dance moves, music and you have Chekhov on steroids – in itself very 2020s.
Uncle Vanya – but there’s ASMR soap cutting videos playing in the bottom right corner
by Mary Angley & Associates, after Anton Chekhov
Presented by State Theatre Company of SA and Paper Mouth Theatre
Directed by Mary Angley
Adelaide College of the Arts, Main Theatre, Light Square, Adelaide
July 9-18, 2026
The cast is a delight to watch. Their comedy timing is spot on and they are obviously loving every moment of this romp.
Thanks should go to the State Theatre Company’s SPARK programme, its donors and artistic director Petra Kalive for igniting and mentoring this talent. Her invitation to submit new theatre works reads: “If your work lives on the edges, thrives in the unexpected, and demands to be seen, felt, and heard, we want you.” This show ticked all those boxes.
We’ll be watching for these exciting young performers and creatives in future plays and perhaps Fringe shows. This troupe is worth following.
Running time, 95 mins. Long title, short play. A perfect combo!
– Vicki Arnold
Tangents and trivia
What is ASMR, what are soap cutting videos and where does Chekhov fit in? We may never know and I think I prefer it that way.
ASMR is a thing. It stands for Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response and You Tube is full of it.
It is described as a calm, tingling feeling on the scalp and neck which radiates down the spine and spreads across shoulders. The tingles are caused by auditory and visual stimuli and are used to help people sleep or for relaxation.
ASMR You Tube videos are of whispering, close-up speaking, light tapping on hard surfaces, slow gentle hand movements and crisp sounds like turning pages, opening packaging and crinkling cellophane but one of the biggest subsets of ASMR is soap cutting.
Soap cutting isn’t just getting out the Stanley knife or potato peeler and randomly slashing. It is precise and varied. Thin ribbons, tiny perfectly-formed cubes called “grid slicing”, curled shavings and shapes filled with glitter.
ASMR soap cutting compilation.
One million subscribers can’t be wrong, can they?
So, is there a link between Chekhov and Camay? Russian soap opera? Nyet.