Culture

'Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike' misses mark, but offers big laughs

As with many plays, the title of Christopher Durang's "Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike" is a microcosm of the work itself. It's rambling, mismatched and humorous for reasons that aren't immediately obvious. As such, it's also a signal that the play is not, as it is often advertised, a gut-busting screwball comedy. It's an unusual -- and, at times, unsettling -- pastiche of one-liners, minor tragedies, Chekhov references, stage antics and genuine reflection on our swiftly changing world. It's difficult to wrap one's mind around, even when staged well.

Perseverance Theatre's production, playing Sept. 14 and 17-21 at the Center for the Performing Arts, does not stage it well. The tone is off, the performers often seem disconnected from each other and the script's nuances have been flattened.

The audience on opening night absolutely loved it. I've never heard such loud and sustained laughter from an Anchorage audience.

These obviously talented actors are very funny. What they're doing on stage is very funny. It's not "Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike," but whatever it is, it's clearly a hit.

The play focuses on three siblings whose thespian parents named them after Chekhov characters. Vanya and Sonia have holed themselves up in their childhood home and spend their days bickering and wallowing in regret. Masha is a washed-up B-movie actress equally prone to bickering and wallowing in regret. When Masha comes to visit, she brings her boy toy, Spike, an idiotic wannabe actor who cannot seem to keep his clothes on. Masha insists on bringing them all to a costume party, and the four clash over everything from memories of their childhood to what they will wear to whether Masha, who owns the house, will sell it. Trapped in this echo chamber, their insecurities, desires and fears are magnified, transformed and occasionally resolved. By the end, each character has experienced some degree of catharsis -- and, in turn, so have we.

Large aspects of the characters and plot are adapted from Anton Chekhov's universe of understated regret, weariness and disappointment and transposed into a 21st-century context. Sonia longs for genuine human contact but feels too isolated to initiate it. Vanya grieves for the life he could have had if he'd pursued his passions. Masha bemoans the fact that she did pursue her passions but wasn't as fulfilled as she'd hoped to be. Despite the jokes they tell, these characters have experienced genuine tragedy.

Durang, in a note included in the program, explicitly says that "Vanya…" is not a Chekhov parody but a "'regular play' that is set in the present time" that "takes Chekhov themes and characters, and mixes them all up.

ADVERTISEMENT

"I have written parodies," Durang says, "but this is not one."

Director Carolyn Howarth's production for Perseverance Theatre doesn't seem to acknowledge this. Howarth interprets the show as a roaring madcap romp, as many of Durang's other works are. But this is as close as Durang has ever come to realism. The script has inherent comic and intellectual power in its high contrast of humor and melancholy. It should be played relatively straight.

This production steamrolls over the more subtle and tragic elements with unrelenting farce. Every line has been turned into a joke, resulting in a wash that ignores the text's built-in structure. The natural peaks and valleys of comic timing have been flattened in favor of a sitcom-style delivery, in which every sentence and action is expected to be followed by a laugh track.

The principal actors display a mastery of exaggerated mannerisms, but they seem more focused on their respective caricatures than on the play itself. Facial distortions and simple physical gags take precedence over faithful interpretation of the script; one particularly witty reference to Chekhov's "The Seagull" is sacrificed in favor of an unfunny gesture. The characters do not appear to be real people talking and listening to each other but actors performing a series of monologues from different comedy routines.

Yet they're clearly having fun, and the audience even more so. Perseverance's production goes for laughs above all else, and undoubtedly succeeds there. The sights of the neurotic, wound-up Vanya (Ben Brown) in a dwarf costume and the dimwitted Spike (Enrique Bravo) dancing on a table in his underwear filled the house (nearly full on opening night) with raucous laughter. Katie Jensen's Masha, perhaps the most faithful performance, takes confident possession of the stage and powers the action forward. And when Patricia Hull as Sonia finally dials down the physical tics for a scene in which she talks with a potential date on the phone, it's a delight to watch.

While some may long for a more nuanced interpretation of the play, most will revel in this production's high energy and carefree attitude. After all, a good belly laugh can be just as cathartic as a quieter moment of empathy or self-recognition. And a theater full of people united in laughter is a rare and valuable phenomenon. So, while this production of "Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike" fails to bring out the script's subtleties, it succeeds in providing a gratifyingly nonsensical vacation from life's oppressive normalcy.

Reach Egan Millard at emillard@alaskadispatch.com or 257-4453.

ADVERTISEMENT