Vanya on 42nd Street Vanya on 42nd Street Vanya on 42nd Street is a 1994 film directed by Louis Malle and screenplay by Andre Gregory. The film is an intimate, interpretive performance of the play "Uncle Vanya" by Anton Chekhov as adapted by David Mamet. The film stars Wallace Shawn and Julianne Moore. Over the course of three years, director Andre Gregory and a group of actors came together on a voluntary basis in order to better understand Chekhov's work through performance workshops. Staged and filmed entirely within the vacant shell of the then-abandoned New Amsterdam Theater on 42nd Street in New York City,
Uncle Vanya act opens, a few hours later, Marina and Telegin wind wool and discuss the planned departure of Serebryakov and Yelena. When Vanya and Astrov enter, Astrov says that in this district only he and Vanya were "decent, cultured men" and that ten years of "narrow-minded life" have made them vulgar. Vanya has stolen a vial of Astrov’s morphine, presumably to commit suicide; Sonya and Astrov beg him to return the narcotic, which he eventually does. Yelena and Serebryakov bid everyone farewell. When Yelena says goodbye to Astrov, she admits to having been carried away by him, embraces him, and takes