Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike Ben Brantley of "The New York Times" described the play as a "sunny new play about gloomy people". Patrick Healy of "The New York Times" described it as a "black comedy about unhappy siblings". According to Robin Pogrebin of "The New York Times", "The play sets characters and themes from Chekhov in present day Bucks County, PA." The characters Vanya, Sonia and Masha are middle-aged siblings named after Chekhov characters. Their deceased parents were "college professors who dabbled in community theater". The character names are borrowed from Chekhov plays. Vanya is the protagonist in "Uncle Vanya" and Sonia is his
Uncle Vanya in the house, and Vanya speaks of dashed hopes. He feels he’s misspent his youth, and he associates his unrequited love for Yelena with the devastation of his life. Yelena refuses to listen. Alone, Vanya questions why he did not fall in love with Yelena when he first met her ten years before, when it would have been possible for the two to have married and had a happy life together. At that time, Vanya believed in Serebryakov’s greatness and was happy to think that his own efforts supported Serebryakov's work; now he has become disillusioned with the professor and