THOROUGHLY MODERN MASHA
Playwright used a ‘what if ’ scenario to write Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike
From left, Fiona Reid, Steven Sutcliffe, Jennifer Dale and Luke Humphrey star in Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, now in previews at the Panasonic Theatre.
Christopher Durang’s relationship with Chekhov has gone through a lot of ups and downs over the years.
“When I was young, I thought he was serious, then I thought he was funny, now I realize he’s a perfect mix of the two,” says the author of the Tony Award-winning comedy Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, which started performances March 14 at the Panasonic Theatre as part of the off-Mirvish season. It stars Fiona Reid, Jennifer Dale, Steven Sutcliffe and Luke Humphrey.
Durang hastens to assure possibly Chekhov-phobic theatregoers that “although my play is related to Chekhov and riffs off some of his characters, I explain 70 per cent of the references and you don’t need to know the original plays to enjoy it.”
He’s right. On Broadway two years ago, a capacity audience roared with laughter throughout the run, not because of the clever ride Durang took on Chekhovian stereotypes, but because he struck several chords that resonate with everyone.
“It’s really a comedy about siblings,” he explains.
“I was an only child, but my parents had lots of siblings and when I was growing up, I would watch them fight in the most dreadful way.”
Durang puts his squabbling kin down “in a pleasant spot not far from a big city, in a nice house on a hill. Just like the one where I live in Bucks Country, Penn., with my spouse, John Augustine.
“There’s a brother and sister, Vanya and Sonia, who stayed home and devoted their lives to taking care of their aged parents, while their sister, Masha, went off and became a medium-big Hollywood star. The parents have finally died and Masha comes home to visit.”
Having put the pot on the flame, Durang pauses and waits for it to bubble.
“I decided to write a kind of ‘what if’ play. I went through my life and pursued what I wanted to do and I’ve had my ups and downs but it’s been successful, mostly.
“But what if I’d stayed home and taken care of my parents with my adopted sister and gotten very bitter? And then the successful one came back to rub our noses in how we had failed.”
Durang’s premise sounds like it could have turned out tragically just as easily as comically and that, he says, “is why it’s so Chekhovian. But I wanted to let the comedy run wild. That’s what I always do.”
So when the starry sister, Masha, shows up, she’s got a much younger boy-toy named Spike in tow and they all wind up going to a costume party with getups that include Snow White (Masha) and a very grumpy dwarf (Vanya).
“At the time I started writing the play, Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher were together, so I thought of them when writing the Masha-Spike relationship. And even though they broke up in real life, I kept it on in the play.
“But it wasn’t all planned. For most of my life, I’ve written improvisationally. I don’t really know where I’m going. Frequently, I will write Act I, not know what the next step is and just put it in a drawer for a while. That’s what happened with this one.”
And that’s a very good thing, because when Durang returned to it, he suddenly gave Vanya a giant aria in Act II which is both one of the funniest and saddest pieces of writing in modern theatre.
“I was going to write a play called We Used to Lick Postage Stamps, about all the common activities we once shared that just don’t exist anymore. Well, I threw the title away, but kept the notion of losing the concept of shared experience and that’s when I wrote Vanya’s rant.”
The character goes on for a long, but hilarious, time about all the television shows that North America used to watch together, in the years before recording and streaming, when The Ed Sullivan Show, for example, could unite the whole continent on Sunday night.
“Do you remember? You’d come in to school or work the next day and everyone was saying ‘Did you see Elvis? Did you watch the Beatles? What did you think of Topo Gigio?’ It was insane, but very unifying.
“There are no longer any shared memories, because there are 300 channels and you can watch all of them any time you want to. It’s just not the same. And, damn it, I miss that.”
Durang pauses for a moment at the end of his own personal rant and reflects.
“You know, regret is something we all have. If you have it in a major way, your life’s a tragedy. If you have it in a minor way, it’s a comedy.” Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike can be seen at the Panasonic Theatre, 780 Yonge St., through April 5. Mirvish.com or 416-872-1212.