Durang's "Vanya and Sonia"¦.' in New York (2nd review)

"If everyone took anti-depressants, Chekhov would have nothing to write about."

That's an understatement, if ever one were offered. And no one is more qualified to do so than the absurdist/dramatist Christopher Durang, a master at turning misery and despair into entertainment and a celebration of life.

The above laugh-line is uttered by one of Durang's own hapless creations, trapped in a hilarious new mash-up called Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike. It sends up every play by Chekhov, and then some. But you don't need to know those plays to get caught up in the fun.

In a fading family home in Bucks County (an analog to the crumbling mansions that incarcerate Chekhov's characters), Vanya (David Hyde Pierce) and Sonia (Kristine Nielsen) live out their dreary days of numbing sameness— except that in this case they're brother and sister, rather than the uncle and niece in Uncle Vanya. (Their drama professor-parents named them after their favorite Chekhovian characters.)

Sibling crush

To complicate matters, Sonia has an unrequited crush on her brother (it's kosher, since Sonia was adopted.). "I have two pleasant moments in my fucking life, and serving you coffee is one of them," she cries, hurling the cups across the room in a paroxysm of rejection.

Another Chekhovian descendant in Durang's wifty world is Masha, named after the moody one in The Seagull and/or The Three Sisters (take your pick). This Hollywood celebrity and five-time bride explodes on the scene and throws Vanya and Sonia's torpor into turmoil. There's also Nina, a besotted young actress like her namesake in The Seagull, who drops by and stays.

Durang milks the Chekhov references to the max. "I'm a wild turkey!" Sonia exclaims (a riff on Nina's "I'm a seagull!"). "I love the cherry orchard!" Sonia cries (referring to Chekhov's last play).

A gay Vanya

Nina celebrates her name day (a reference to Irina's fête in The Three Sisters). Masha (Sigourney Weaver) is a famous actress with a young lover (reminiscent of Arkadina and Trigorin in The Seagull).

Inevitably, the play goes haywire, adding one incongruous character after another. A cleaning lady called Cassandra offers prophesies of doom and gloom (in bad Greek translation), like the threat of selling the family estate (a key plot point in Chekhov's Uncle Vanya), along with a prediction that her car needs to be inspected.

There's also Spike, Masha's newest hunk (whose real name is Vlad), with whom Vanya becomes smitten (Vanya's gay, by the way). And there's an offstage character named Hootie Pie (a real estate agent) who schemes with Masha to sell the estate.

Maggie Smith too

The play loosely follows the plot of Uncle Vanya but keeps adding elements from Chekhov's plays and other literary works, so that by the end of Act I, Durang has thrown in everything but the kitchen sink. There's a costume party at the neighboring Dorothy Parker House, where Masha dresses as Snow White and the other characters as various dwarves.

Into this mix Durang throws all his favorite themes: psychological disorders, acute family dysfunction, child abuse, gay identity, Hollywood, TV and (most lovingly) the theater. Sonia's Maggie Smith impersonation is one of this play's many memorable metatheatrical moments.

It all adds up to delightful theater of the absurd, as these classical, literary and pop cultural references swirl together into madcap mayhem.

While Durang is being Durang, he's also being true to Chekhov. There are touching moments— such as Vanya's nostalgic lament for the '50s of "I Love Lucy," "Ozzie and Harriet," Davy Crockett and "postage stamps that you can lick."

Durang's softer edge

Under the surface absurdity lurks a sadness. "There are no shared memories anymore," Vanya says, "Our lives are disconnected"— a heartfelt Chekhovian lament for our times.

Ultimately, and surprisingly, Vanya and Sonia turns out to be one of the most congenial of Durang's plays. Who would have expected it from the author of Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All To You (about the cruelty of Catholic education) and The Baby With The Bathwater (about parental failure)? These earlier Durang plays came with sharp fangs that bite deep.

But lately the Happy Ending has been sneaking into Durang's oeuvre. Why Torture Is Wrong and the People Who Love Them (2009), for example, began as an over-the-top black comedy and ended on a cheerful note, if you can imagine that from a play about terrorism.

"You must always get your hopes up," Nina remarks here. With the sweet strains of the Beatles' "Here Comes the Sun" at its finale, Vanya and Sonya promises a lilting, loopy optimism for the holiday season. Well, almost.

Meanwhile, this blender version of Chekhov's plays may go down in theater history, alongside the Bard mash-ups by the Reduced Shakespeare Company, as one of the funniest send-ups of the classics ever "“ moreover, one with heart.♦


To read another review by Jane Biberman, click here.