If you're keen to hear Uncle Vanya read with a British accent, check out the BBC Radio series on Chekhov. 2010 is the 150th anniversary of Anton Chekhov's birth, and to mark the occasion, BBC Radio is broadcasting both new programs and archive recordings of Chekhov plays. The programs are only available online a week after the broadcast, so settle down, you small fries and peasant wives, and check it out here.
"Only a mindless savage would burn up all this beauty in his stove and destroy what we're incapable of creating. Men have reason, and creative ability, so that they can make more of what's been given to them. But so far they haven't been creative, they've been destructive. There are fewer and fewer forests, rivers run dry, wild life is annihilated, the climate's ruined, and every day the land gets poorer and uglier. Oh, you stand there looking at me sarcastically, you don't take anything I say seriously, and maybe I am just a crank. But when I walk past the peasants' woods, which I saved when they were going to be cut down, and when I hear the rustle of young trees which I've planted with my own hands, I realize that to some extent at least I can control the climate. And that if people are happy in a thousand years' time, I will have made some small contribution towards that. When I plant a young birch and watch it turning green and swaying in the wind, my heart is filled with pride! I--anyway. It's time I went. I probably am a crank. Good day to you all." --Astrov in Uncle Vanya.
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