Zane Williams
Sarah Day and James Ridge in Forward Theater's production of "Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike."
Hurray for Christopher Durang for writing one of the most refreshing plays of recent years, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike. And hurray for Forward Theater Company, whose warm and funny cast brings the title characters to life.
Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, which plays through April 26 at the Overture Center’s Playhouse, won the Tony for Best Play in 2013. If the names sound familiar, it’s because they’re all drawn from the works of Anton Chekhov, with the exception of Spike of course. Vanya (James Ridge), Sonia (Sarah Day) and Masha (Julie Swenson) are siblings, children of dead college professors who moonlighted as amateur actors. In homage to the great playwright, they named their children after Chekhov characters.
Durang plays in a delightfully self-aware way with the archetypes of Chekhov’s world. Sad sack siblings Vanya and Sonia live together in the country, near a cherry orchard, mourning their wasted lives, while accomplished Masha makes films and foots the bills. The action of the play begins when Masha visits home with new boy-toy Spike (Travis A. Knight), determined to sell the house once and for all, leaving her siblings to fend for themselves.
Audiences don't need to be familiar with Chekhov to enjoy this play. Durang explains everything the audience needs to know. Even without the subtext, he provides straightforward laughs throughout the play. Housekeeper Cassandra (Marcella Kearns) does a delightful turn as a hippy fortuneteller that would be right at home on Willy Street, and visiting neighbor Nina (Alexandra Bonesho) brings fresh enthusiasm to the graying siblings, reminding them always, despite their circumstances, to have hope.
But the real star turns are the four leads. Ridge’s curmudgeonly Vanya and Day’s chronically put-upon Sonia are the most depressing people you’ll want to spend all night with. Swenson’s Masha is an aging starlet just past her shelf life, and Knight’s Spike is infectiously clueless. Try taking your eyes of him as he flexes his muscles and brags about how he just almost landed the lead role in Entourage 2.
Durang has many things to say about age, life’s purpose and the new versus the old generation. But mainly, he just hopes you’ll have fun. By the end of the night, you’ll want to draw up a chair on the beautiful set designed by Frank Schneeberger and spend a spring night with this wonderfully dysfunctional family. To paraphrase Sonia, if everyone took antidepressants Chekhov -- and Durang -- wouldn’t have anything to write about.
