Mastrovito is wonderful as the repressed Vanya, an even-tempered gay man who is barely peeking out of the closet. (They even sound like Don Ameche and Frances Langford, who played the battling Bickersons). In the story, Masha visits Vanya and Sonia, with her boyfriend du jour Spike, who is twelve years younger than she, in tow, and tells them that she is thinking of selling their home.Īt the outset, Vanya and Sonia, played respectively by Ray Mastrovito and Peggy Steketee, are reminiscent of radio’s Bickersons they are constantly sniping at one another about immaterial, inconsequential things, such as how Vanya likes his coffee. Vanya and Sonia are jobless, but live on money given to them by Masha, who owns their parents’ house, to pay the rent and living expenses. Their chief source of irritation is their younger sibling Masha, a five-time divorcee who is a world-renowned film star. Now in their fifties, Vanya and Sonia realize they have no lives outside of their pleasant but plain little existence. As Durang described it, “I take Chekhov scenes and characters and put them into a blender.” The story focuses on Vanya and Sonia, who live in the house they grew up, in which they took care of their aging parents until they died. The names of the four major characters, as well as many of the references in the script, are drawn from various Chekhov plays. The play, produced by Leslie Nichols and directed by Fred Helsel, plays at the Santa Paula Theater Center through August 16. This character study into the lives of three squabbling, middle-aged siblings has enough humor and poignancy in it so you don’t have to have your SparkNotes handy to enjoy it. Although I am not as familiar with the plays of Anton Chekhov as some, Christopher Durang’s play, Vanya & Sonia & Masha & Spike, doesn’t require a pop quiz of Chekhovian references in order for one to enjoy the show.
0 kommentar(er)
