Critic’s Pick
Until Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, Christopher Durang’s plays haven’t moved me. It’s not that I haven’t enjoyed his sarcastic, often cynical works such as Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All For You, The Marriage of Bette and Boo, Why Torture is Wrong and the People Who Love Them and lesser works like Mrs. Bob Cratchit’s Wild Christmas Binge. However, they have always struck me as a shade too topical and often superficial — going for laughs without emotional depth. With his Tony Award-winning script currently onstage at the Cincinnati Playhouse, I have a newfound appreciation. Durang and I are both in our mid-60s, so perhaps we’ve softened in our attitudes about life and other matters. But this play has a kind of wistful maturity that is moving, yet still ensconced in Durang’s off-kilter humor.
Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike is the story of three siblings in their 50s, all feeling that life hasn’t taken them to places they expected. Their community-theater besotted parents named them for characters in the plays of Anton Chekhov, giving Durang ample opportunity to pepper the script with lines, situations and emotions that fans of the Russian playwright will recognize — and others will simply find amusing in their romantically stated angst.
Vanya (John Feltch) and his adopted sister Sonia (Suzanne Grodner) have stayed in the family home, a spacious farmhouse in rural eastern Pennsylvania (a glorious set designed by Paul Shortt), to care for their parents prior to their deaths. Now they simply drift from day to day. Sister Masha (Elizabeth Hess), divorced five times, has had a career as a movie star (in forgettable films) that’s paid the family’s bills and kept her distant. She shows up for a weekend with Spike (Jefferson McDonald), an aspiring twentysomething actor whose greatest asset is his body, which he willingly and frequently strips down to show off.
Two other characters add texture. Cassandra (Shinnerrie Jackson) is a madcap cleaning lady who spouts incoherent prophecies and ultimately has a lot of heart and insight. Nina (Gracyn Mix) is a cute girl-next -door who is in awe of movie stars and has a naïve but sweet take on everyone, regardless of their bizarre behavior. She’s captivated by everything, from Spike’s body and Masha’s fame to Vanya’s intellect.
The siblings yearn for things they don’t have — love, respect, vitality, the past. (That’s an echo of Chekhov, by the way.) Their feelings play out in wonderfully funny and frequently poignant ways, especially when Feltch’s Vanya goes into a breathless 10-minute rant — prompted by Spike’s feckless texting while a bizarre play is being read — about shared memories and better times in the past, from licking postage stamps to watching The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet. Grodner’s Sonia evokes applause from the audience when she finally lands a long-yearned-for date. And even Hess’ egotistical Masha comes around after another romantic rejection (more like a welcome escape from her ridiculous sexual entanglement with Spike) to realize that her siblings are the emotional anchors she truly needs.
The show is staged by Playhouse veteran Michael Evan Haney, and his steady director’s hand and optimistic sensitivity take this script and these amusing characters to levels of warmth that a less thoughtful director might miss altogether. Of course Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike is funny; the hilarious preparations for a costume party with costumes from Snow White keep the first act percolating. But Durang’s play has a heart that, in the end, makes it oh so watchable.
VANYA AND SONIA AND MASHA AND SPIKE , presented by the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, continues through May 23.
This article appears in Apr 29 – May 5, 2015.
