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October 3-9, 2013 • Bay Area Reporter • 29
Beefcake in the cherry orchard by Richard Dodds
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n the serendipity that can flow from a-throw-it-against-the-walland-see-what-sticks approach, you can imagine Christopher Durang’s home wallpapered in pasta. That may not be true of all of his creations, but with Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, there is adhesion no matter whether it’s silly fusilli, farcical farfalle, or trenchant trenette. Durang’s latest play, which won a Tony Award earlier this year, is opening Berkeley Rep’s new season with intelligent comedy that can get its laughs from broad sight gags to Chekhovian references. Somewhere in the middle, there is still room to discuss Ozzie and Harriet, shopping at K-Mart, a molecule’s emotional state, Ingmar Bergman vs. Jersey Shore, and a soothsaying housekeeper with a voodoo doll. But even if the jokes, gags, and situations are adhesive, it’s not so certain that all have been thrown at the right wall. It’s not surprising to read that Durang originally planned to play the morose, middle-aged, and gay Vanya, sibling to Sonia and Masha, whose community-theater parents named them for Chekhov characters, at least not surprising when Vanya goes on a rambling luddite-lite tirade. It’s a funny and poignant speech, passionately delivered by Anthony Fusco, but something of an interpolated verbal aria. But even when Durang gets off the very elastic track he has laid, the detour is always entertaining. Certainly the second act has more trouble sustaining the exuberant introductions of characters, their situations, and their conflicts that drive the first act. That first act can leave you feeling happily gob-smacked as a brother and sister, terminally bored when the curtain rises, end up dressed as a Snow White dwarf and the Evil Queen in an entourage that has grown to include another dwarf, Prince Charming, and Snow White herself by the time the Act I curtain descends. They are all headed to a ritzy costume party at the house where Dorothy Parker once lived in fashionable Bucks County. The party is only a few blocks away, but it’s light years from the hermetic lives that siblings Vanya and Sonia have shared in the family home. Their lives of gloom are interrupted by their third sibling, Masha, a Hollywood star who has been paying the bills, who brings rare festivity into the home, until she announces that she plans to sell the family house. All manner of comic holes are poked into swathes of contemporary life. Movie star Masha sees every light reflecting back on her, and Lorri Holt brims with insecurities that her character’s self-centered bravado can’t hide. She plans to
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World” to “Two Men In Love.” When McDermott and the band cut loose, as they do on the highflying “Arrow,” the salty “Tears” and smooth-sailing “Ship,” you know you’re hearing something special. The Random Hubiak wasn’t kidding when he called his latest disc Memoirs of a Manwhore: The Reeling Waltz of a Drunken Lothario (therandomhubiak.fourfour.com). Musical influences ranging from Tom Waits and Elton John to Ben Folds and Regina Spektor all come through loud and clear. But The Random Hubiak’s lyrics are what set him apart from his influences, particularly on standout tracks “Happy To Be Your Whore,” “Hip Little City” (hear Elton John?) “Hotel by the River,” “The Trick” (hear Billy Joel?) and “Car in the Rain.”t
dazzle the costume party with her elaborate rendering of Snow White (the Disney version, she needs to repeatedly point out). She has brought dwarf costumes for her siblings for their supporting roles, but Sonia refuses to go as the dwarf Dopey. Sharon Lockwood is all kinds of wonderful as Sonia, first as a frumpy master of ennui, and then, in a second-hand gown overrun with sequins, a sudden star. Lockwood clenches her jaw and regally commands the stage in her interpretation of the Evil Queen as played by the actress played by Maggie Smith in the movie California Suite. Masha brings along her own Prince Charming, a well-muscled wanna-be actor who has been Masha’s young companion for several months. When Spike makes his first entrance with a kind of curlicue hop, skip, and flop, one might worry about the choices the actor and/or director have made for this character. Well, you ain’t seen nothing yet. Mark Junek has the athletic grace and stuntman’s precision to let him literally leap across the stage when not backflipping into a sofa or performing a Chippendale-worthy reverse striptease. In addition to a fantastic physical performance, Junek can pull serial laughs from his dim-witted
character’s self-absorbed dialogue. Caroline Kaplan is peaches and cream as aspiring actress Nina from next door who worships at Masha’s feet, although Masha begins to think Spike and Nina might become their own congregation. Housekeeper Cassandra has warned the family to beware of Nina, though many of her sentences begin with the word “beware.” Heather Alicia Simms creates a weirdly wild combination of crackpot, sage, and scowling domestic. She is easily moved to Greek tragedy for her premonitions that don’t always follow the original text. “Oh wretches, oh misery, oh magical mystery tour,” she says before announcing that lunch will be served in 20 minutes. All of the above finds a comfortable home in scenic designer Kent Dorsey’s detailed rendering of a converted farmhouse, and Debra Beaver Bauer’s costumes expertly play an essential role in the proceedings. Director Richard E.T. White has corralled the madness of Durang’s play without dampening the humor. It is comedy served up al dente.t Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike will run at Berkeley Rep through Oct. 25. Tickets are $35$89. Call (510) 647-2949 or go to berkeleyrep.org.
kevinberne.com
In Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, Mark Junek plays an aspiring actor with an exhibitionist streak, eliciting different reactions from his audience (Anthony Fusco, Caroline Kaplan, and Lorri Holt).