When playwright Christopher Durang got the idea for Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike he wanted to act in it and wrote a role for himself, says Philip Lehl, co-founder of 4th Wall Theatre Co.
What Durang was exploring was what his life would have been like if he stayed home at his house in Buck County Pennsylvania, never went out, was depressed and never had a career in theater, says Lehl who’ll be playing the Vanya role in the show opening next week at Spring Street Studios.
“He’s a closeted gay man who’s stuck in the house with his adopted sister and they’ve taken care of their parents and they say they just never made a life for themselves. They’ve just stayed in this house. They’re kept by their sister who’s rich and famous. She’s a movie star. So they don’t have to work. They just sit in this house.”
When Masha, that rich and famous sister (Patricia Duran), arrives with her much younger boyfriend Spike (David Gow), the ordered lives of Sonia (Kim Tobin-Lehl) and Vanya are upended. Other cast members include Skyler Sinclair as Nina and Jasmine Renee Thomas as Cassandra. 4th Wall Artistic Director Jennifer Dean is directing. The two act comes in at about two and a half hours with one intermission.
In describing her character, Tobin-Lehl says, “She’s one of these glass half empty people. She’s kind of disenchanted and bitter about her life and always looking for the silver lining and the hope and always finding that the rug has been ripped out from under her. It’s that duplicitous journey of trying to find the way, as we all do. When things are really bad or you don’t feel like you’ve kind of gotten what you want out of life, how do you find the courage to go on and believe in something great coming your way.”
Winner of the Tony Award for Best Play in 2013, the play has frequent nods to Chekhov’s plays that go beyond just Vanya and Sonia being named after characters in his plays, Lehl says. “Like many Chekhov plays: a visitor comes — in this case the sister and her boyfriend — and it upends everything.”
Although this was not planned, both think it’s especially appropriate to do the play now after Durang died in April this year at 75. Known for his absurdist comedies (Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All For You, Beyond Therapy) and was also an actor and singer.
“The other thing that’s very important is there’s a generational gap that comes into play,” Tobin-Lehl says. “You’ve got these two younger characters , their technology awareness, the way they communicate is so removed from the way the older people see the world. that it heightens the sense of how the older people feel like their lives are so removed from the way the world is happening and moving.”
“Spike and Nina, they’re at the beginning of their lives of their careers. They’re hopeful. They’re enjoying life,” Lehl says. “They’re total foils for the other three.”
“The play highlights the difference in attention spans and what younger people are capable of and how they pay attention and what they’re interested in and what they want to do and where they want to go,” Tobin-Lehl saus. “And then what older people want to spend their time doing. And how the communication doesn’t happen. And it’s very funny.”
Case in point: the scene where a costume party is planned. Masha is going as Snow White and expects everyone else to go as dwarves, specifically assigning the role of Dopey to her sister Sonia. Conflict ensues.
“We both believe the play has aged really well. It’s still as timely as it was when it first came out,” Lehl says. The play offers a bonus to people who know Chekhov’s works, but is completely accessible without that, they say. And the intimate setting in their theater offers a chance to become closely enmeshed in this family’s life.
“It’s very heartfelt. I think it’s really just a smart, joyous and touching play,” says Tobin-Lehl.
Performances are scheduled for November 22 through December 21 at 7:30 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays and 3 p.m. Sundays. at Spring Street Studios, 1824 Spring Street, Studio 101. For more information, call 832-767-4991 or visit 4thwalltheatreco.com. $25-$65.
This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2024.
