“What a house!”
The barren, country-estate setting for “Uncle Vanya,” Anton Chekhov’s masterpiece of 1890s malaise, is filled with misery, melancholy and mundanity. It’s where three generations live inside a tedium so vast, it threatens to swallow us all whole.
We moderns are predisposed to compassionately tsk tsk at the wasted lives in Chekhov plays, a world where Cupid’s arrow is always bent, delusion is a daily elixir, idleness becomes a prison, and human potential goes ever unfulfilled.
This would all be so horrible — if it weren’t so funny.
Yes, “Uncle Vanya” is funny. Chekhov didn’t put the Serebryakovs and Voynitskys on display for your pity but rather for your amusement.
“All we want is for someone to feel sorry for us,” whines the feeble old nurse Marina. But Russians of the day would have laughed in her face. What they knew better than we do today is Chekhov’s penchant for class mockery.
Germinal Stage founder Ed Baierlein, serving here as director, performer and play adapter, makes the punch line unmistakable with his clever, colloquial script, which includes barrier-busting lines like, “Hold your pants on!” and sublimely funny Debbie Downerisms like, “Drinking gives me the illusion that I’m still alive!”
Oh, the Russians are so very Irish. All that’s missing here is a flashing neon “Laugh!” sign.
It’s a hoot to watch as the audience gradually gains confidence in laughing out loud at what by any standard of decency should strike us as stiflingly sad. Until it dawns on you that this is classic Noel Coward: “There are two types of knowledge — the kind intelligent people already know, and the kind stupid people don’t care about!”
Here’s who you need to know: Insufferable old professor Alexandr (Baierlein) is a pompous hypochondriac. Bored country doctor Astrov (Terry Burnsed) pines for his trophy wife Yelena (Lisa Mumpton). Then there’s Alex’s poor, drippy daughter Sonya (Elgin Kelley). Sonya, who technically owns this house of horrors, fully loves the doc. But nobody loves Sonya. Her Uncle Vanya (Eric Victor), the only one doing any work around here, just wants to punch his spoiled brother-in-law Alex in the face. Then there’s some random guy whose life stopped years ago the day after he married – when his wife ran off with another man.
Though we’re in the vast, isolated country, having eight actors crowd onto the Germinal’s postage-stamp-sized parlor room creates a sense of claustrophobic exile.
True to Chekhovian form, nothing much happens until, suddenly, it does (usually it involves a gun). Mostly it’s random displays of self-pity, self-absorption and self-flagellation. There is an interesting eco-subtext too: The surrounding forest is being eaten alive, like the souls of its inhabitants. But don’t make too much of all that. “Metaphors bore me,” one opines.
In Baierlein’s funniest wink, whenever the blathering grows to its most poetic, he layers in both soft music from the next room — and, on cue, snoring from the sawing old nurse as well. Consider it a raspberry to intellectual elitism. (There’s even a quick, fun nod to the Colorado Shakespeare Festival’s “The Inspector General,” by Chekov predecessor Nikolai Gogol.)
All of which helps make this a surprisingly unintimidating and un-dreary staging, performed without distracting Russian accents and, coming in at less than two hours, blissfully condensed.
It’s a pretty solid cast except for the title role, which is played with a little too much simplistic levity. The more it hurts, the funnier it’s supposed to be, and our glib Vanya doesn’t seem nearly wounded enough. Baierlein is at his blistering best as the pompous Alexandr, but the heart of this piece really beats in Mumpton’s complicated portrayal of wife Yelena and Kelley’s as her spinsterly stepdaughter, Sonya. Of course, the play would lose all its might if you played it as pure Abbott and Costello. But Kelley’s sad, climactic lament grounds this staging with a real and necessary emotional underpinning.
We think of happiness as an individual pursuit. But Chekhov takes a more societal view. “This is simply the wrong era for happiness,” he tells us.
Which is kind of funny.
John Moore: 303-954-1056 or jmoore@denverpost.com
“Uncle Vanya” *** (out of four stars)
Grim comedy. Presented by Germinal Stage-Denver, 2450 W. 44th Ave. Written by Anton Chekhov. Directed by Ed Baierlein. Through Aug. 28. 1 hour, 50 minutes. 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays; 7 p.m. Sundays. $17.75- $21.75. 303-455-7108 or
This weekend’s Best Bet: “Scripov”
“Scripov” is a recurring mashup of theater and improv comedy in which the first act of a fully prepared original play is performed for the audience. Then the scene is replayed, only with a new actor or two thrown in who have no clue what they are walking into. And for this whole two-week run, the comedy guinea pigs will include noted area actors such as the Denver Center’s great Sam Gregory (tonight, Aug. 5), Amie McKenzie (Aug. 13) and the stars of the cult fave “Girls Only” — Barbara Gehring and Linda Klein (Aug. 12). 7:30 p.m. Presented by the Dishwater Blondes and the Legit Players improvisational comedy teams, who created “Scripov” in 2006. Here is the remaining schedule of guests:
Aug. 5: Sam Gregory (Denver Center Theatre Company)
Aug. 6: Jennifer Bugg & John Campbell
Aug. 11: Robert Michael Sanders
Aug. 12: Barbara Gehring and Linda Klein (“Girls Only”)
Aug. 13: Amie McKenzie, Jason Coviello and Barbara Gehring
Thursdays through Saturdays through Aug. 13 at the Avenue Theater, 417 E. 17th Ave., 303-321-5925 or .
This weekend’s other theater openings
“Banana Peel Sundae” Mr. Hari Cotvert is a mild-mannered, dignified circus performer — until one odd night when he finds himself trapped onstage with a monkey, an orangutan and a small crocodile. Christopher Keller combines acrobatics, clowning, slapstick and puppetry in this high-energy, family-friendly amusement. Through Aug. 14. Manitou Art Theatre, 1367 Pecan St., Colorado Springs, 719-685-4729 or
“An Empty Chest” In this comedy by Jonathan Vick, Ashford is leaving Lorraine for his receptionist. But he gave his heart to his wife back when they married and now is forced to ask for it back — literally. And she’s not so sure where she hid it. Through Sept. 2. Dangerous Theatre, 2620 W. Second Ave., 720-233-4703 or
“Feathers on the Breath of God” This theatrical, musical and visual performance piece, inspired by the life and work of the 12th century mystic Hildegard of Bingen, illuminates Jeannine Goode-Allen’s journey to wholeness as an artist living in the 21st century. Through Aug. 30. 1410 Quince Ave., Boulder, 720-257-3823 or
“The Merchant of Venice” The place for one of Shakespeare’s most problematic plays has become even more complicated in a post-Holocaust century. The play’s greatest villain, who demands his pound of flesh, is also its greatest victim, the embodiment of strong anti-Semitic stereotypes. Performed under a tent in an idyllic meadow at the Garden of the Gods. Through Aug. 27. Presented by TheatreWorks at the Rock Ledge Ranch, 719-255-3232 or
“Pippin” Stephen Schwartz’s iconic 1970 musical follows well-educated Prince Pippin and his need to find meaning and purpose in his life (“Corner of the Sky”). PG-13 equivalent for language and minor suggestive situations. Through Aug. 21. Presented by Ignite Theatre (formerly Gravity Defied) at the Aurora Fox, 9900 E. Colfax Ave., 720-626-9796 or
Video podcast: Denver first lady Mary Louise Lee
This week, John Moore talks with Denver first lady Mary Louise Lee, wife of Denver Mayor Michael Hancock, about her upcoming role as Glinda in Afterthought Theatre’s “The Wiz.” Includes excerpts of Lee singing “If You Believe.” The musical runs Aug. 24-Sept. 26, 2011.
Complete theater listings
Go to our complete list of in Colorado, including summaries, run dates, addresses, phones and links to every company’s home page. Or check out our listings or
The Running Lines blog
Catch up on John Moore’s roundup of the latest theater news:
