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Blue Bridge theatre's Uncle Vanya strikes a modern chord

What: Uncle Vanya Where: McPherson Playhouse When: To June 16 Tickets: $45.25 (matinees) $54.75 (evenings) McPherson box office: 250 386-6121 ------------------------------ At least his character doesn’t get killed off in this one.
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Duncan Ollerenshaw, as the title character, and Amanda Lisman, as Yelena, rehearse a scene from Uncle Vanya, showing at the McPherson Playhouse.

What: Uncle Vanya

Where: McPherson Playhouse

When: To June 16

Tickets: $45.25 (matinees) $54.75 (evenings) McPherson box office: 250 386-6121

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At least his character doesn’t get killed off in this one.

Calgary actor Duncan Ollerenshaw plays Vanya in Blue Bridge Repertory Theatre’s new production of Anton Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya, opening tonight at the McPherson Playhouse. Ollerenshaw’s character is a middle-aged man who believes he wasted his life by serving as an underling to his brother-in-law, Professor Serebryakov.

Ollerenshaw, an affable bearded fellow, is best known for playing Mr. Toole on Hell on Wheels, the American cable television series on AMC. The show is set around the construction of the first transcontinental railway in the U.S. during the mid 19th century.

Mr. Toole, explained Ollerenshaw, was a very bad fellow (at one point he lynches a black man). At the end of Season 1 he gets shot in the mouth. However, the creators of Hell on Wheels liked his depiction of the character so much, Mr. Toole made a miraculous recovery and returned for yet another season.

“I came back with a bullet hole in the back of me head,” said Ollerenshaw, re-creating Mr. Toole’s Irish accent.

Unfortunately, Mr. Toole’s time in this contemporary western — populated by ex-soldiers, murderers and other colourful folk — was still limited. Via email, Ollerenshaw learned from a head writer that Mr. Toole was to be killed off. And this time it was to be permanent.

“He gave the heads up. ‘OK, the next episode is gonna be your last,’ ” he said.

For his efforts, Ollerenshaw won best performance by an Alberta actor at the Alberta Film and Television Awards. Despite his small-screen success, the actor — who has performed extensively with the Stratford and Shaw theatre festivals — contends the stage is his true love.

In this production of Uncle Vanya, directed by Brian Richmond, Ollerenshaw is joined by a cast that includes Amanda Lisman (Yelyena), Jacob Richmond (Astrov), Chris Britton (Serebryakov) and Brian Linds (Tyelyegyin).

Richmond, who says Chekhov is his favourite writer, has directed Uncle Vanya twice before — once in Toronto and once in Thunder Bay, Ont. Although it premièred in 1899, the drama — which in typical Chekhovian fashion focuses on shifting psychological currents — seems surprisingly contemporary.

“In rehearsal, we continually commented that it seems like it could have been written today,” Richmond said.

Ollerenshaw, who was directed by Richmond years ago in a production of Michel Marc Bouchard’s play Lilies, says he appreciates the director’s deep understanding of Chekhov. A key to making Vanya work is bringing out the humour within the character, particularly in early scenes, Ollerenshaw added.

“Really, Vanya is a man who’s at the heart of a mid-life crisis, looking for the value of his own life and finding it wanting. For [the actor playing] Vanya, it’s finding the lightness for what is a very dark journey.”

Soon after studying theatre at Toronto’s York University, Ollerenshaw earned a berth as a member of the Shaw Festival, a repertory theatre. As well as acting in such George Bernard Shaw plays as Candida, he studied with the company’s academy for young actors. Over four seasons Ollerenshaw learned much about being an actor — in particular, meeting the challenge of how to communicate with audiences using Shaw’s heightened language.

Ollerenshaw received several offers to appear in plays following Uncle Vanya’s run. However, wanting to clear his schedule for TV and film auditions, he turned them down. With this goal in mind, he’s enlisted an agent in Vancouver, where Ollerenshaw plans to relocate in the coming months.

He concedes he’s not the typical screen actor (“I have crooked teeth, and for TV’s purposes I’m too overweight.”) That said, appearing on 16 episodes of a major American television series like Hell on Wheels has given Ollerenshaw a enviable calling card.

“Of course,” he added with a smile, “in the final analysis it’s the work you do in the audition for a particular part that gets you the role.”

achamberlain@timescolonist.com