Ralph Fiennes to Star in Alan Ayckbourn's Adaptation of Uncle Vanya

Ralph Fiennes plans to star in new adaptation of Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya written by British playwright Alan Ayckbourn, according to Variety. The play, dubbed Dear Uncle, will be relocated from Russia to Britain’s Lake District in 1935. Matthew Warchus, who directed Ayckbourn’s The Norman Conquests in London and on Broadway, has signed on to helm a production in the summer of 2011 at an unnamed theater.

Producer David Pugh told Variety that he commissioned the adaptation after reading reviews that compared Norman to Vanya and learning that Ayckbourn considers the Chekhov classic his favorite play. Dear Uncle would be performed in the round, as are most Ayckbourn plays staged in his home theater of Scarborough, England. (The Tony-winning revival of The Normal Conquests was staged at Circle in the Square.)

Pugh and his producing partner Dafydd Rogers hope to attract a cast of stars to join Fiennes, who will play a character based on the country doctor Astrov. The Variety article threw out the names of Ken Stott (God of Carnage) in the title role, along with Kristin Scott Thomas and 2010 Oscar nominee Carey Mulligan, who starred in London and Broadway productions of The Seagull.

Fiennes won a Best Actor Tony in 1995 for starring in Hamlet and most recently appeared on Broadway in 2006 in a Tony-nominated performance in Brian Friel's Faith Healer. He worked with Warchus in the original London production of God of Carnage.