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Riverside Theatre Provides Chekhovian Home To ‘Vanya And Sonia And Masha And Spike’

Riverside Theatre
Morgan MacInnes casts a wary eye on Stacey Logan in a scene that has to be seen to be explained in Riverside Theatre’s comedy Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike

VERO BEACH — You’ll laugh wildly at the pumped up, absurd comic antics in Riverside Theatre’s brilliant production of Christopher Durang’s award-winning Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike. But then, it’ll sneak up, shake you out of your comedy-induced coma and warm you with the positive notion that life is all about hope.

Indeed, while Mr. Durang is known for a bent toward bizarre, anxiety-filled comedies shown in earlier 1980s works such as Laughing Wild, Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All for You, Actors Nightmare and Beyond Therapy, something resonating and important rumbles beneath the surface.

The winner of the 2013 Tony Award, Drama Desk Award and the New York Drama Critics Award for best play, Vanya and Sonia…was all the rage on Broadway and became an ultra-hot ticket. Since then, it’s become one of the most often produced play in theaters around the country. In it, aging siblings Sonia and Vanya live in their childhood home — a beautiful old farmhouse home in genteel Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Their morning has begun with a sense of foreboding, as Vanya peers towards the audience; the lights pulsate up, each bump met by a more puzzled look on Vanya’s face. Vanya’s adopted sister, Sonia, sighs that she fears she has missed life but takes joy in the nearby cherry trees.

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By Pam Harbaugh, FloridaTheaterOnStage.com, for SouthFloridaReporter.com, Feb. 19, 2016 

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