Theater review | Sarasota's Urbanite Theatre stages a fresh take on Chekhov
It's called "Stupid (expletive) Bird" and it may be the play that Urbanite Theatre was born to produce.
Like just about every play that Urbanite has staged in its short life, Aaron Posner's play is smart, entertaining, unusual, challenging and thought-provoking. It's sometimes uncomfortable and almost always challenging. It requires attention and invites analysis and discussion. Its acting is powerful and its staging is inventive.
The space is configured with about 60 seats, one row against one long wall, two rows along the opposite wall, and just a few against a third shorter wall. The action happens so close to the seats that a lot of people in the audience come in physical contact with the actors at some point. Some of the actors will have their backs to you some of time, so your choice of seats will alter your experience of the play.
It all makes for a fascinating, fun and funny evening of theater.
Posner's play is a reworking of Anton Chekhov's "The Seagull." The relationships and the flow of the story are the same, and the characters are parallel. And it asks the same questions about theater in the 21st century that Chekhov asked about theater in his day.
The story has to do with a group of seven people, family members, partners and friends, who have intertwining relationships. Unsuccessful playwright Con, who longs to create a new form of theater, loves actress Nina, but she falls in love with successful novelist Trig, the long-time partner of famous actress Nina, Con's mother. Mash loves Con, Dev loves Mash, but neither love is requited.
As in all Chekhovian households, the conversation centers just as much around ideas as around emotions.
Director Vincent Carlson-Brown also directed "Isaac's Eye" for Urbanite, which featured a similar seating and stage configuration. His staging here is fast and fluid, and his actors manage perfectly the tricky combination of naturalism and experimentalism.
The performances from Joseph McGranaghan as Con, Tess Hogan as Emma, Summer Dawn Wallace as Mash are among the best, but all the actors are strong and all have intense moments. On opening night, Harry Lipstein seemed self-conscious as Trig, but his performance was serviceable.
The play is not for everybody. It's not for anyone who goes to the theater for diversion rather than for stimulation, and it's not for people who are bothered by profanity (which there's lots of) or nudity (which is in one scene). But tickets are already difficult to come by -- Urbanite added two performances of "Bird" before it even opened -- so there's obviously an audience hereabouts for this kind of startlingly fresh theater.
Details: Through March 3, Urbanite Theatre, 1487 Second St., Sarasota. Show times: 8 p.m. Wednesday-Friday, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday, plus 8 p.m. March 1 and March 8. Tickets: $20; students with ID $5. Information: 941-321-1397, urbanitetheatre.com.
Marty Clear, features writer/columnist, can be reached at 941-708-7919.
This story was originally published February 18, 2016 at 6:06 PM with the headline "Theater review | Sarasota's Urbanite Theatre stages a fresh take on Chekhov ."