Theater Reviews

I've seen three plays in the last week and a half: The Seagull at Cincinnati Shakespeare Company (the play is by Chekhov, not Shakespeare); The Travels of Angelica at Playhouse in the Park; and The Nina Variations at Cincinnati Shakespeare Co., put on by the Playhouse interns. I'd much rather go to a good play than a movie. So it's been a good week in that regard. Here are my thoughts:

The Seagull
First of all, if you've never seen a play at CSC, what is your problem? They've been my favorite theater company since high school. Go see a show there. (Though perhaps their next show, Shakespeare's Timon of Athens, might not be the best place to start. It's one of Shakespeare's lesser known plays. Lesser known by a lot. I will be going to see it, however, because I'm a nerd like that.)

So I decided to go to The Seagull alone last Saturday. (Not that there was no one to go with me—spare your sympathy—it was more of a solitude thing.) I didn't know much about the show, but it was absolutely phenomenal. Chekhov's writing is brilliant and startling, as is Tom Stoppard's translation. I've come to expect great acting from CSC, but even still they surprised me. Each character was so uniquely and precisely formed. They are all flawed and they hurt each other and fight their deep unhappiness with life. Each presents something raw and relatable.

As an added bonus, I recently joined CSC's Young Professionals group (another star on my Nerd Card), so I got to hang out with some of the cast and crew after the show. I enjoyed talking over the play and getting their insights into their roles. We talked about the differences in translations (a seagull vs. the seagull), how genres can mix (The Seagull is a terrifically funny, tragic play), and which characters we see ourselves in (I'm an odd mishmash of Masha and Konstantine). A behind the scenes look at a great play at my favorite theater... yes, please!

I'd definitely recommend The Seagull (playing for a few more weeks!), but will warn you that it's quite dark, albeit quite funny, too. That may not be your brand of entertainment.

The Nina Variations
The Playhouse interns put on this show that showcases 43 variations on the end of The Seagull. Don't bother to see it if you haven't seen or read The Seagull; however, if you have seen The Seagull, do see The Nina Variations. The variations were funny and heart-wrenching and unanimously well done. Instead of a variety of outcomes it struck me more as a character study, a look at the intricacies of their lives and motivations. The Seagull makes you ask why and what could of been; The Nina Variations explore these questions.

The Travels of Angelica
I was excited by the premise of the play: alternating a man and his daughter on the run from Puritan authorities with modern day grad students searching for the truth about a little known writer from the past. I enjoyed the play, but it felt like a play version of a good novel. It felt like the story was a little too condensed and the characters just a smidge too flat. It wasn't bad, not at all; I just felt like it could've been better. All in all a good show. Still a good night out.

One thing though, the commercials on the radio talk about The Travels of Angelica as a story of hope and realizing dreams of what could be. I hadn't heard them before I went to the show, but once I'd seen it, I wondered why they'd describe it that way. All the characters have hopes and desires at the beginning, but by the end they're mostly let down and empty handed. I'm not opposed to that in a play, but the false advertising made me laugh. Perhaps I just missed the message of the show.