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LA Weekly Online October 5-11, 2001 |
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Our
Own Dear Anton's Abandoned Story Cycle Presented by Ivan and Burkin
(100 years after they left their village) Among the reasons Anton Chekhov turned to playwriting was his inability to find an expanded and cogent format for his many short stories -i.e., to write a novel. One such attempt was a story cycle, something like Turgenev's Sketches From a Hunter's Album, but Chekhov abandoned it after a couple of stories. Now, some 100 years later, playwright-novelist Joseph Skibell brings to life two characters from Chekhov's aborted effort - a veterinarian and a high school teacher, played by William H. Bassett and Richard Kuhlman, respectively -- then adds his own third character, Vladimir (Michael Albala), in order to |
finish
the cycle as a play. This very meta-literary exercise is full of jokes
on "whose narrative is this anyway?"- and people existing for the
sole (and soul) purpose of telling stories. The evening is as bawdy
as Chaucer, as playful as Dickens and seems, at times, as long as
Tolstoy - it's like being in a room with a domineering if kindly uncle
who's a bit too much enamored of his own wisecracking and digressions.
The ensemble, however, is as topnotch as Virginia Morris' tart, story-theater
staging: Kuhlman sizzles with his intricate comic timing, wry asides
and parodies of Bassett, who portrays an aging, endearing and slightly
befuddled windbag. Thin as a wisp Albala slips between the two with
the jollity of Puck. ShapeShifter Productions at the Raven Playhouse,
5233 Lankershim Blvd., N. Hlywd.; Thurs.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 7 p.m.;
thru Oct. 28. (323) 478-1337.
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