Farmers

Alley cast wrenches comedy out of sad characters in Tony-winning

comedy 'Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike' (review)
By Mark Wedel | Special to the Kalamazoo Gazette
on February 07, 2015 at 7:50 AM, updated February 08, 2015 at 8:54 AM

KALAMAZOO, MI --Characters facing the deep fear that their lives have been
wasted can either make for a dark and depressing play, or a very funny one.

The laughs did come during "Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike." The
Tony-winning Christopher Durang play made its Kalamazoo debut at the Farmers
Alley Theatre Friday. Its cast mixed the wacky with the depressive, and
wrenched humor out of some very melancholic and dissatisfied characters.

It's directed by David Alpert, 2006 WMU grad who's been directing in New York
City, and was associate director on Broadway productions including "If/Then" and
"Trip to Bountiful."

Much has been made of this comedy's references to Russian writer Anton Chekhov's
plays -- many in the audience got some extra amusement thanks to their study of
late 19th century theater. It also has lots of winking commentary on theater, acting
and culture in general.

But it stands on its own as a study of sad, bitter characters facing deep life-truths.
And, as emotional-slapstick of colliding personalities, it's simply funny.

Look at the title "V+S+M+S" as a mathematical formula, or better yet, as a formula

of chemicals to carefully mix together to produce an interesting reaction -- not
exactly an explosion, but certainly a bubbling foam that overflows the beaker and
makes a ridiculous mess.

Siblings Vanya (John Shuman, actor out of New York City who's been on the
Broadway stage) and Sonya (Wendye Clarendon, Chicago) are living a placid
existence on their late parent's country estate.

They speak pleasantries with shallow breath as if they're barely there. Passive-
aggressive barbs are thrown in for fun. A sudden outburst livens up the patio. There
are admissions that, having reached their 50s, they forgot to live lives.

They go back to staring out at the pond, at the "cherry orchard" of a few trees, and
wonder about the return of the blue heron. "I'm a wild turkey," Sonya meekly
declares. Housekeeper Cassandra (Cassandra Ward, WMU theatre, Los Angeles)
arrives to clean between her fits, where she flails about and spews forth dire
prophesies -- something about someone named "Hootie Pie."

It's not a healthy emotional environment. Dropping into it like a bomb is their
horrifically self-obsessed movie star sister Masha (Elizabeth Terrel, WMU theatre
faculty). She's brought along her very young lover, empty-headed bro-hunk
actor Spike (Nathan Cockroft, NYC). She's also brought resentment in the form of
reminders that she's financed her sibling's lives.

Add to the formula an ernest and idealistic theatre dork neighbor girl Nina (Kate
Thomsen, award-winning WMU theatre alumna), a costume party, a crying fit, a bit
of experimental theatre, and an extremely long and passionate rant about licking
stamps, and you get not only comedy, but a fascinating character study.

All in the cast had their moments to shine. Shuman and Clarendon were both pots
of bitter bubbling emotional brew topped by rattling lids of mild-mannered control,
yet were likable enough to win audience sympathies. Terrel got the richest role of
the aging diva, and brought in enough fragility to make Masha-- just barely -- a
sympathetic, even likable, character.

Cockroft had perfected an aura of oblivious dumbness. Ward nearly stole the show
with her Cassandra's fits, visions and voodoo, but Terrel topped her weirdness with
one odd and hilarious scene.

It is tempting to further analyze "Vanya" etc.'s Chekhovian themes and Durang's

style of surreal absurdities mixed with sitcom-like gags. But at the end, the audience
was left with a surprisingly upbeat ending and the laughs that only warped-but-
human characters can provide.

A sad note: Comedy is hard, it's said, and the announcement made Friday night
before the show at Farmers Alley made laughter seem impossible.

Theatre executive director Adam Weiner told the audience that local
actor/comedian Adam Carter had died earlier that day. Carter, most recently the
emcee in Farmers Alley's "Cabaret" last summer, was "one of the funniest men I
ever met... a dear friend to many who've come across him," Weiner said. "He
would've wanted us to laugh."