Anyone not familiar with this comedy is probably wondering about the titles of the play and of my review. The simple explanation: the play tells a story of three siblings whose parents were university professors and community theatre actors, and loved Chekhov -- so they named their children after his characters. And I can never resist the urge to pun.
The script is also littered with allusions to Chekhov's plays -- all throwaways, in terms of the main line of the story. But the real under-resemblance is the presence of a collection of middle-aged people who feel they have wasted their lives, gathered together and sniping at each other between bouts of self-pity. But be assured: the sniping is funny as you please, not as dreary and depressing as Chekhov's own plays can be (he's never been one of my favourite playwrights -- can you tell?).
Durang's script takes me to one of my favourite places to have fun: watching a really good team of actors get up on stage and deliberately impersonate a really bad team of actors. That also brings up the equally tricky proposition that, when a script calls for totally over-the-top movement and vocal work, there's a frighteningly small space between "over the top" and "too far over the top." Maybe only one of the three siblings is an actor, but it's quite obvious that all three were raised by actors -- a significant point that the production definitely brings to light.
This production is a winner. Even with a few rough edges, and a small, hard-to-warm-up preview audience, the show was drawing plenty of laughs by the time we got to the second act.
At the beginning we meet Sonia (Dinah Watts) and Vanya (George Jolink), both middle-aged, both unmarried, and both frumpy and grumpy. Watts was particularly good here as she veered in and out of the edges of reality (her repeated "I am a wild turkey" a never-failing delight). Jolink wasn't given much to work with in this scene except to play the patient martyr to her endless complaints, but he did it well, and did it with a good deal more variety and texture than one might expect.
Linda Worsley entered next as Cassandra, the cleaning woman, and brought in her train another whole chain of theatrical inside references -- this time, to the world of Greek tragedy. Her name, too, proved to be no accident as she immediately began spouting oracular prophecies consisting of a mish-mash of Shakespeare and Aescylus, with some original material sneaked in from time to time. She warns Sonia and Vanya of trouble to come, and repeatedly tells them to "Beware of Hootie Pie!" None of which makes any sense to them -- like the ancient Cassandra's auditors, they pay no heed to her weird statements. Worsley in full prophetic flight, with arms windmilling furiously, was a sight to behold, and with her trumpet-of-doom vocal tone she had no trouble making herself heard to the back of the house -- and probably beyond.
The next arrival is the other sister, Masha (Caroline Dolny Guerin), a self-identified Hollywood "star." With her comes her hot young boytoy, Spike (Darryl Rayner). Dolny Guerin immediately projected the self-centred monster of ego, and then masterfully let the armour slip just a bit at a time until we could discern the hugely insecure woman under the controlled surface. Rayner, on the other hand, very quickly showed off Spike's manipulative colours, projecting raw animal energy so strongly at everyone in the room that the play began to look for a few minutes like Entertaining Mr. Sloane. He also made a comic highlight of the scene where Masha tells him to put his clothes back on like a striptease in reverse, and he takes her at her word -- all but seducing Vanya right there in the living room while very slowly getting dressed. A classic portrayal of "I am sexy and I know it."
The last character we meet is the likable ingénue of the show, the niece of the couple next door. As a likable ingénue, she is, of course, called (what else?) Nina. Nina is awed by the chance to meet her idol, the great Hollywood actress Masha, but with her sterling common sense ends up befriending Vanya and (later) Sonia. Hailey Hill gave a clear, consistent performance of what is definitely the most two-dimensional part in the script, and made as believable a character as the playwright would allow her to do.
And that's just the introductory material! From there on, the play -- like any good black comedy -- spins into more and more preposterous but perfectly natural outcomes of this setup. A mysterious play within a play (inspired by Konstantin's play in The Seagull), a complete set of Snow White costumes, a special kind of pincushion, Maggie Smith, a society party, a talking molecule, and Hootie Pie -- all play their part in the steadily increasing lunacy.
My favourite transformation was the moment when the dowdy Sonia suddenly reappeared as a glamour star. Watts gave a stunning performance in these scenes, both voice and physicality altered almost beyond recognition.
Without giving anything else away, I just want to commend four more great moments.
The hilarious opening scene of the second act, with the special pincushion.
The beautifully orchestrated unison crying scene.
The lengthy phone call, so believable that I was actually silently rooting in my seat for her to say "Yes" -- and gave a big fist pump when she did. Now, that's total involvement theatre!
And above all, that incredible monologue. This was George Jolink's crowning moment as Vanya. Vocally superb, with wonderful shading and gradation of tone, ranging the gamut from sad nostalgia to a slow burn and one definite outburst of anger. I'd like to see Jolink do less twisting and turning from side to side, and less half-facing to the audience in this long speech. Since the focus of his outburst is Spike, it's not really necessary for him to keep including the others in his big rant. The speech would have been better served by having Vanya keep driving in on Spike from every possible direction.
The rant quickly and directly leads to the denouement which proved once and for all that, really, everyone should have heeded Cassandra's warning to "beware of Hootie Pie!" And then, a very satisfying and naturally achieved settled -- perhaps even happy -- ending.
Laura Sepulveda's set design appeared unnecessarily complex at first glance, but the upper gallery level across the back proved to be well worth while when it came time for characters to "Make an Entrance" as opposed to simply making an entrance.
Director Jeremy Hewitson has crafted a well-paced performance, making effective use of the stage's spaces (with the exception already noted), and almost completely avoiding the trap of too much over the top. It's a rousingly funny evening of theatre, thought-provoking with it, and well worth anyone's time to see.
Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike is on stage at the Palace Theatre until February 25.
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