Epilogue Players presents Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, a play I have never read nor seen, but certainly have heard of. Christopher Durang’s Tony Award winning play came to us in 2012, played off-Broadway and on Broadway, before catching the eye of many theatre groups around the country.
Apparently, the script deals a lot with Chekhovian themes and names and settings. There is a hole in my theatre education with regard to the Russian playwright – for whatever the reason, my college profs did not take much notice of him in the curriculum. My loss, for sure.
Regardless, Mrs. K and I took our seats with an open mind.
David Johnson (a 2023 Mitty Award winner) takes the role of Vanya, a rather static male, who lives in his childhood home with his equally static adopted sister Sonia, played by Alice Penry. Their worldly movie-star sister Masha (Christine Kruze) comes to visit, along with her studly boyfriend, Spike, played by Logan Laflin. Well, there’s the reason for the title.
Add in another 2023 Mitty winner, Susan Hill, as the sooth-saying cleaning lady, Cassandra, and last year’s winner for Best Actress, Emily Reese Castro, as the bubbly young girl-next-door, Nina, and you have a completely wonderful cast for the task at hand.
Directors Michael and Marie Beason worked hard to decode much of Durang’s writing, with what I would have to say is a partial success. This is a difficult piece to unwrap, I think.
Cassandra (Susan Hill, center) foretells some form of doom as the others listen. (Photo courtesy Epilogue Players)
Please note: I have no reason to call out any of the artistic efforts here. Everyone played their roles with alacrity and polish. I just think the piece itself is wanting – regardless of its award-winning status.
It’s too long for what it offers, two and a half hours with many sections that seem to my mind to be extraneous. It’s hung-up in Chekhov references – which some of us do not get. It repeats and repeats, as if for filling. And a certain long monologue by Vanya, very much like a sermon although well delivered by Mr. Johnson, is just too preachy for our senses.
There was one significantly precious section which was delivered by Ms. Penry that had all the qualities of fine acting and writing that we like to look for – Sonia on a phone call with someone she had met during a rare outing the night before, being asked out for dinner. It hit home with emotion as she possibly turned her life around, with a change of attitude and a belief in herself. I found myself really pulling for her then.
Tech-wise, the set design by Andy and Mel Burnett works very well, and Rebecca Blandford’s costume designs are on the mark.
Bottom line: I wish I had enjoyed this show more. All the right energies were in place and the cast was a well-oiled ensemble much of the time. I just did not have an appreciation for what Durang was trying to get across here. Other audience members seemed to enjoy it just fine, so the problem is probably with me.
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