Petr Shelokhonov created leading roles in several new productions of such classic plays by Anton Chekhov as Uncle Vanya in "Uncle Vanya" (), Ivanov in "Ivanov" (), Tuzenbach in "Three Sisters" (), and Treplev in "The Seagull" (). In "The Cherry Orchard", which he co-directed, he also played two opposing characters on different nights, alternating between the roles as Gayev, and as Lopakhin. Shelokhonov also appeared as Satin in "The Lower Depths" () by Maxim Gorky and as Derzhavin in "Friends and Years" by Leonid Zorin. His favorite role of that period was Platonov in the eponymous play by Anton Chekhov. In
Uncle Vanya has grown, and how he feels bored with his life as a country doctor. Vanya enters, and complains about how all order has been disrupted since the professor and his wife, Yelena, arrived. As they’re talking, Serebryakov, Yelena, Sonya, and Telegin return from a walk. Out of the professor's earshot, Vanya calls him "a learned old dried mackerel," criticizing him for his pomposity and the smallness of his achievements. Vanya’s mother, Maria Vasilyevna, who idolizes Serebryakov, objects to her son’s derogatory comments. Vanya also praises the professor’s wife, Yelena, for her beauty, arguing that faithfulness to an old man like