Adobe Theater opens ‘Odd Couple’
The world has changed so much over the centuries that the classics present unusual problems for producing theatrical artists. How do we give life to masterpieces written in a time so remote from our own?
The Russian playwright and short story writer Anton Chekhov is especially difficult to produce. No dramatist of genius has had his sleep of death disturbed more frequently with bad productions than Chekhov, and the adjective “boring” has been appended to his name so often it’s a wonder he is still produced. Boring productions of Chekhov are the norm, despite his genius.
Playwright Aaron Posner has found a way to circumscribe this problem.
He has rewritten Chekhov’s first great play, “The Seagull,” essentially leaving the characters and plot untouched but adapting it to the 21st century.
Part of that adaptation includes a metatheatricality Chekhov — writing in the age of “realism” — never could have imagined.
The audience is frequently addressed, and at one point the central character Konstantin (Conrad in Posner’s version) will not go on with the play until the audience answers his question: “How do I get the girl I love to love me back?” This requires improvisational skill on the part of the actor playing the lovesick Conrad — Harrison Sim in an excellent performance — and the results are truly hilarious.
Chekhov called “The Seagull” a comedy, much to the confusion of audiences and producers ever since Stanislavsky’s first production at the Moscow Art Theatre in 1898.
After all, Konstantin kills himself at the end of the play, which would seem to suggest the play is a tragedy. (By the way, I did not necessarily spoil the ending for you; Posner has a very clever way of ending the play, which is quite a departure from Chekhov’s ending.)
“Stupid F***ing Bird” is playing at FUSION Theatre in a brilliant production directed with great finesse by Laurie Thomas.
The cast is uniformly superb, and there is not a boring moment in the entire three-hour production. Quite the contrary: you will be riveted and frequently laughing so hard you may miss some of the dialogue.
“The Seagull” is about art and the creative life and also about love, almost always unrequited.
While “Stupid F***ing Bird is essentially the same play, some of “The Seagull’s” themes are transmuted in the update.
Part of the reason Chekhov considered “The Seagull” a comedy is because his focus is on Nina more than Konstantin. She struggles and endures and by the end of the play has grown into a great actress (comedies end happily and this is a happy ending of sorts for the lead character). Not so in this production. She is still a lousy actor at the end. We’ve grown more cynical over the last 100 years or so, and endure our troubled times in different ways. Conrad, like his predecessor, is still harping on “new forms” and realizes that perhaps we don’t need new forms but simply need to do the old forms better.
As a matter of fact, the play we are watching, “Stupid F***ing Bird,” is the play he wrote. Not exactly a new form, just the old form in a new way for a new audience.
This is galvanizing, brilliant, potent stuff and not to be missed. “Stupid F***ing Bird” is playing at The Cell through Feb. 14. Go to FUSIONnm.org or call 766-9412 to make your reservation.