Few playwrights have explored the human psyche and all its repercussions as crazily,
expressively, madly or unpretentiously as playwright Christopher Durang. The lightning bolts of his imagination - no matter how quirky, fucked-up or completely off the charts they purport to be - reveal a talent like no other akin to a humorous world of primary colors, oddities, absurdities and conversational curves that are grotesque, nail-biting, strange and pathological yet, at the same time, ironic, satiric, involving and alarmingly true.
The core of these plays - idiosyncratic, strong-willed people struggling to make perfect sense out of their messed-up lives - are rife with foolishness, mean-spiritedness, unabashed sexuality, imagination, quirky overdrive, weirdness, pitfalls, non sequiturs and telling truths that only Durang could muster.
And that is exactly what makes each and every one of them stand out.
Nowhere - at least for the moment, anyway - is this more evident than in Durang's celebrated comedy "Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike," a deliriously wicked and playful spin on the moody and profound works of Russian playwright Anton Chekov.
It is bold and snappy.
It is cheeky and insane.
It is acidic and sneering.
It complements the playwright's trademark absurdism.
Its intentionally ridiculous behavior and chaos is played with decided purpose.
It's well focused and clearly drawn.
It's a jolly good story with lots to say.
And finally, it is one of those plays that not only finds the joy in the language and bullishness of Durang's writing, but has an intoxicating weirdness to it that makes it even more palpable, more vivid, more engaging and more colorful than it already is.
Taking its cue from the plays of Anton Chekhov - "The Cherry Orchard," "The Seagull," "The Three Sisters" and "Uncle Vanya" immediately spring to mind - Durang finds humor with the oft-told story of three siblings at odds with one another, using dialogue, character names, references, story arcs, ideals and revelations associated with the 19th century playwright. The well-placed jokes about cherry orchards and what actually constitutes the makings a real cherry orchard (for example, how many trees constitute an actual cherry orchard?) are hilariously orchestrated as are the play's acidic bits about Maggie Smith, Michael Caine, Gloria Swanson, Neil Simon, Howdy Doody, Davy Crockett, Ozzie and Harriet, Snow White, Annette Funicello, Dorothy Parker, the Oscars, Walt Disney, Perry Como, Billy Wilder's "Sunset Boulevard," the film adaptation of "California Suite" and decades-old television with only four channels.
As penned by Durang, "Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike" depends heavily on the right comic timing, the right pacing, the right preening, the right posturing, the right mindset, the right expressions, the right line delivery, the right beats, the right holds, the right pauses and the right element of surprise to make the articulated neuroses, quirks and ticks of his outrageous mindset swerve, verve and giddyap. The implementation of Oliver Kochol as director (he co-directed "The Importance of Being Earnest," "Who's Holiday" and "Next to Normal" with Ian Galligan for Castle Craig Players) is not only a coup for this acclaimed, Meriden-based theatre troupe, but one that keeps the over-the-top craziness of the piece in check alongside its pretty looney characters, its Chekhovian heartbeat and its scene-by-scene whip and snap.
Then and now, Durang's dialogue still zings, excites and cajoles as it explores and retraces the choices, lifestyles, passions, idiosyncrasies and commitments of its six central characters, all of whom play a key role in his amusing, off-the-cuff, voltage-charged telling.
Here, Kochol, as director and interpreter, comes to the project with a keen sense of balance, purpose and directorial know-how to thrust "Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike" into orbit. He gets Durang. He understands Durang. He knows what works and what doesn't work. He digs deep. He takes chances. He doesn't waste a moment. He also guides his six-member cast through the play's unexpected comforts, insecurities, angst, merriment, frustrations, pronouncements and sexual frivolity with confidence, counterpoint, thrust, expression and intuition.
As the play evolves, he takes hold of Durang's blueprint and has great fun with it.
Directorially, he knows how to set up a scene, how to make it play before a live audience, how to get a laugh, how to let the material breathe and resonate, how to shake things up, how to pause or take a breath, and how to keep things moving at a brisk pace both comedically and dramatically. Given the intimate space of the Castle Craig Players' venue, he also enlightens the production with a special, one-on-one, actor-audience connection that would be relatively missing - to some degree - at a larger theater.
For this revival, Kochol allows room for small bits of improvisation here and there, a directorial tact that adds spark to some of the play's more funnier sequences and allows his cast to not only further embellish their characterizations, but play certain moments differently from their predecessors or make acting choices that allow them to take leaps or chances that bring additional dash and freshness to Durang's already proven material.
"Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike" stars Adrianne Giammatteo as Masha, Stephen Koehler as Spike, Barbara Gallow as Sonia, Mike Zizka as Vanya, Elisa Albert as Nina and Lisa Carroll as Cassandra.
Back in 2013, Sigourney Weaver's outrageous portrayal of the showy, self-preoccupied Masha, a famous Hollywood film star with an ego the size of Beverly Hills and a set of not-go-great slasher films to her credit, gave the Broadway production of "Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike" a high-octane drive that was chock full of splash, snap, dash and glitter, offset by a series of rants, raves and tirades that poked fun at tinsel town, its manufactured talents, its labored success stories, its sexual escapades and its glamour-induced materialism. It's a role the actress inhabited quite comfortably, using the right amount of lunacy and eccentricity indicated in the play script. Playing the same part for the Castle Craig Players, the wonderfully charismatic Adrianne Giammatteo ignites the part of egotistical, self-centered Masha with the same fiery intensity and overplayed narcissism that Weaver brought to the role. At the same time, she goes full tilt with the performance - great directorial encouragement by Kochol - and is actually much funnier and crazier than her predecessor.
Creating non-stop laughter, thunder, argument and borderline chaos whenever she's on stage, the actress gives new meaning to the word "egotist," "diva" and "showoff," playing the role with keen, ripe, comic exactness and Hollywood glitz, glamour and flourish.
She also knows how to deliver a punchline and joke perfectly. Her moves, her comic expressions and her eye contact with everyone on stage is a genuine source of merriment. And in Act II, when her character comes home from a costume party (she is dressed as Disney's Snow White), she is at her comic peak crying and moaning about how pissed she is because most of the party guests assumed she was Norma Desmond from "Sunset Boulevard" or some colorful Hummel figurine. Priceless - and then some.
In the Broadway production of Durang's comedy, Billy Magnussen's portrayal of Masha's hunky, blonde, muscular toyboy Spike, got laughs in all the rights places due to the actor's uninhibited portrayal of a narcissistic exhibitionist prone to peeling off his clothing and stripping down to his underwear with gleeful abandon much to the delight of the straight women and gay men in the audience drooling and hoping for a costume malfunction. At Castle Craig, Stephen Koehler assumes the role of Spike and its quirky playfulness, offering a polished, refreshing, absolutely hysterical turn that's so real and naturally inventive, you can't wait to see what his character is going to do next.
He's funny. He's charming. He's witty. He's charismatic. He's wild. He's quirky. And he knows how to play comedy effectively no matter what the script asks his character to do. His reenactment of Spike's HBO audition for "Entourage 2" is delivered with Actor's Studio resilience, charm, wit and surprise, using the necessary beats, pauses, drum rolls and excitement associated with the live audition process. It's one of the major highlights of the production and one that, under Kochol's savvy, intuitive direction, plays better on the Castle Craig stage than it did on Broadway. What Koehler does with his belt, jeans, and zipper is truly HYSTERICAL.
As Nina, the neighbor's pretty, unassuming niece who dreams of becoming an actress when not flirting with Spike in his underwear or gushing madly over Masha's big screen success, Elisa Albert crafts a vivid character turn with grounded rhythm, genuinely-live in exhilaration and deliciously sprung surprise, the later which comes about in Act II when she is asked to play the part of a molecule in a reading of Vanya's play.
Last seen in Backyard Theater Ensemble's chilling production of "A Number" at New Britain's Hole in the Wall Theater, Mike Zizka (Vanya) offers yet another polished, honest performance that smartly reflects the character blueprint set forth by Durang. His line delivery, his comic timing and interaction with the entire "Vanya" cast is flawless. During the second half of Act II, he too gets one of those big theatrical moments that asks him to rant, rave and philosophize in grand, illuminating fashion similar to something found in one of the Chekov plays. He pulls it off effortlessly. Lisa Carroll, as Cassanda, Vanya and Sonia's cleaning woman, who delivers dire prophecies that come true and uses a voodoo doll on Masha, brings sitcom sensibility to the part, laced with drama queen abandonment and variety show, panto-themed determination.
Smart, sassy and cheerful, "Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike" is a wildly clever two-act comedy that playwright Christopher Durang crafts with outrageous wit, cheeky, character-driven dialogue and enough biting irony to keep one happily entertained for well over two hours. The script is bold, saucy and lampooning, thus, eliciting loud chuckles and belly laughs from start to finish. With director Oliver Kochol at the helm, the playwright's tangled, absurdities and marvelous plot twists ring loud and clear as does the play's Chekhovian-inspired characters, their triggered-up craziness, their verbal tirades and their dysfunctional angst and ennui which, of course, is the heartbeat of this engaging comic entertainment and other works by Durang.
Whiplash comic timing and genuine, airborne performances by the entire cast, bring additional spark to this splendid revival about family, choices, sex, self-identity and pretty much everyone else in the chaotic world of Durang's thinking.
"Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike" is being staged by the Castle Craig Players (Almira F. Stephan Memorial Playhouse, 59 W. Main St., Meriden, CT), now through May 22, 2022.
For tickets or more information, call (203) 634-6922.
website: castlecraigplayers.org
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