[ATTENDED: October 3, 2012] Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike
Berlind Theater is on the back side of the McCarter Theater on Princeton University’s campus. I’ve seen a number of shows at McCarter, but none at Berlind. Berlind proved to be an even smaller and more intimate venue than the gorgeous McCarter.
What better place to see Sigourney Weaver and David Hyde Pierce in starring roles? Especially when I managed to get $20 seats that were in row K. That’s right, Row K, as in 11 rows from the stage. All for $20 and free parking…suck it, Broadway!
Sorry, that was very unclassy. Let me start again.
Christopher Durang wrote the play Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike as a kind of loving nod to Chekov’s Uncle Vanya. The booklet that came with the play is very funny in which Durang interviews himself and gets most of the details wrong (he keeps calling it a parody of Uncle Vanya, which he explicitly states it is not).
The play is set in Bucks County, PA (just a hop skip and a jump from Princeton). David Hyde Pierce played Vanya, an older man who lives with his sister Sonia. Sonia, who is played by Kristine Nielsen, was adopted as a little girl. Their parents loved Chekov and named them after the characters in Uncle Vanya. And when thy became infirm, Vanya and Sonia stayed in their childhood home to take care of their ailing parents. Now Vanya and Sonia are much older, unemployed and curmudgeonly. She and Vanya have a hostile, co-dependent relationship. (more…)
I Just Read About That... 