David Matranga (left) as Astrov and Tracie Thomason as Yelena. Photo by Michael Paulsen

Has any play ever mounted a more persuasive demonstration of human folly and futility than Uncle Vanya?

Anton Chekhov’s quietly telling study of thwarted lives at a Russian country estate gets a slow-to-warm yet ultimately affecting rendition in the Classical Theatre Company’s current staging.

Though one of the four classics that constitute the foundation of Chekhov’s reputation (alongside The Seagull, Three Sisters and The Cherry Orchard), Uncle Vanya is the one that has elicited the most divided critical opinion. Perhaps that’s because its proper realization demands a particularly attentive balance between its comic and tragic qualities.

Director John Houchin generally keeps those two strains coexisting harmoniously — playing up the quirkiness of the characters’ often ludicrous behavior, yet maintaining the right warmth and sincerity in the more tender encounters and outcries of unrequited passion.

The action unfolds at the country home of the retired old professor Serebryakov, who is paying a summer visit with his second wife, the beautiful young Yelena. Serebryakov reveals himself as a pompous fraud, constantly complaining, and Yelena is miserable that the obnoxious reality of her husband falls so short of the distinguished image she thought she was marrying.

Their presence throws the household into disarray, especially for the two dutiful souls who maintain the estate: Vanya, the brother of Serebryakov’s late first wife; and his niece Sonya, Serebryakov’s daughter from his first marriage. Both Vanya and Astrov, the idealistic and disillusioned doctor who’s virtually part of the family, are madly in love with Yelena and make awkward attempts to woo her. Meanwhile, the plain and sensitive Sonya nurtures her secret love for the uncaring Astrov and begs Yelena to ascertain Astrov’s feelings toward her.

Serebryakov brings all the complicated interplay to crisis point by announcing his intention to sell the estate to provide needed income for himself and Yelena.

Though rather tentative in early scenes, CTC’s production gradually takes hold as the cast begins to gel in enacting its complex relationships.

Philip Lehl plays Vanya in a daze of ineffectual spluttering and outraged surprise; he’s certainly the soul of frustration, if at times a bit scattered in his energies. Eva Laporte brings genuineness and quiet intensity to the gentle, quietly enduring Sonya. David Matranga instills Astrov with intelligence, bitter bite and quizzical humor.

Tracie Thomason’s initially impassive Yelena seems stunned into emotional inertia, then awakens commandingly as she fends off her two unwelcome suitors. Carl Masterson’s querulous, overbearing Serebryakov makes it clear that he loathes himself as much as everyone else.

S.A. Rogers is ingratiating and droll as Telegin, impoverished neighbor and perennial tagalong. Terri Branda Carter and Julie Oliver do sturdy work in their supporting roles.

Though all the characters are fools, the women, especially Sonya and Yelena, meet life’s challenges with greater dignity and logic than the men.

Chekhov gives to the stoical Sonya the final summation, her realization that they will find rest and peace only in death, and in the meantime, they should get back to work. Chekhov’s implicit message: Stop complaining and do something useful. Sound advice, whether in 1897 or 2012.

Uncle Vanya
7:30 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays
2:30 p.m. Sundays, through Jan. 22
Classical Theatre Company, at Talento Bilingüe
333 S. Jensen
$15-$18
713-963-9665