Woody’s [rating:5]
Mark Junek does reverse striptease in the role of Spike as (from left) Anthony Fusco (Vanya), Caroline Kaplan (Nina), and Lorri Holt (Masha) watch in “Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike.” Photo courtesy kevinberne.com.
A lot more than once.
No, I didn’t wet myself. But it was a close call during the Berkeley Rep production of the comedy that won this year’s Tony Award as best play.
The Big Apple run starred Sigourney Weaver and David Hyde Pierce. I can visualize their performances as two of the three title siblings named after Chekhov characters.
But director Richard E.T. White conducts his ensemble of actors as if it were a jazz sextet, staging one solo riff after another to extract loud laughter from the audience as easily as a teenager might Google just about anything.Witness, for instance, the brilliance of Mark Junek’s physical antics when his character, the twentysomething boy-toy Spike, does a reverse strip tease.
Or Sharon Lockwood’s breakout as Sonia, imitating Maggie Smith emoting in a screechy British voice on the way to the Oscars (while prancing in a tiara and blue gown on which no more sequins would fit).
Or Heather Alicia Simms’ star turn as Cassandra, a voodoo pi
n-pricking prognosticator, or Anthony Fusco’s Old World passivity as the bearded Vanya.Nor should the other performers be ignored. Both are top drawer, Lorri Holt as narcissistic B-movie star Masha (“I just feel old and vulnerable”) and Caroline Kaplan as wannabe actress Nina, who’s attracted to Spike (“He is so attractive — except for his personality, of course”).
Playwright Christopher Durang’s wit and cleverness can be as swift-paced as a Louis C.K. standup routine, and as omnipresent as his allusions to Shakespeare, the Beatles and Disney’s seven dwarfs.
Durang even spoofs his own reverence for his favorite 19th Century playwright.“If everyone took anti-depressants, Chekhov would have had nothing to write about,” intones one character. “I hope you’re not going to make Chekhov references all day,” pleads another.But the seriousness that lies underneath is countered by the buffoonery that’s pervasive.
Indeed, “Vanya” is an homage, with frequent references to “Three Sisters,” “The Cherry Orchard” and “Uncle Vanya” but if you’ve never seen or read anything by Chekhov you’ll still enjoy the banter, set pieces and character development — not to mention the marvelous costuming by Debra Beaver Bauer (look particularly for the dwarfs), note-perfect sound design by Rob Milburn and Michael Bodeen, and the lone set by Kent Dorsey that replicates an upscale country home in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, where Durang actually lives.
Durang’s characters are skillfully drawn. Sonia and Vanya feel their lives have passed them by, having spent 15 years caring for their Alzheimer’s-plagued parents.
She’s never reconciled her being adopted, and is usually sad and angry, a throwaway spinster who “can’t do anything right.” He laments his life, too, and relishes raving about the glories of yesteryear and the dreadfulness of today’s culture.
Like much of Chekhov’s work, “Vanya” emphasizes people and relationships rather than plot — with everyone working in unison to make sure the audience feels the play is much shorter than its two hours plus.
And when the characters become stagehands and move furniture between scenes, their actions appear to be seamless part of the play.Durang, who is gay, has had a history of dealing with homosexuality, Roman Catholic dogma and child abuse in his previous work (which included “Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All for You” and “Beyond Therapy”).This one skips the dogma and abuse.
Samuel Beckett, creator of “Waiting for Godot,” is known as the father of the Theater of the Absurd. In a sense, Durang might be considered his stepchild, romping in the same playground although his humor and personages are less abstract, more grounded, more rooted in reality.
Despite all the mugging and over-the-topness.
“Who’d you recommend this show to?” my wife asked me as we left the theater, continuing a verbal game we’ve played for years.
“Everyone,” I replied — “without hesitation.”
“Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike” plays at the Berkeley Repertory’s Roda Theatre, 2015 Addison St., Berkeley, through Oct. 25. Night performances, Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Wednesdays and Sundays, 7 p.m.; matinees, Saturdays and Sundays, 2 p.m. Tickets: $17.50 to $89, subject to change, (510) 647-2949 or www.berkeleyrep.org.
