Production stage manager Jill Ragaway.Anton Chekhov is considered to be among literature’s greatest short story writers, whilst his plays helped change the course of modern drama. Janellen Steininger/Marsha: Dietlein YulyaĪnton Chekhov’s play in a translation by Nicholas Saunders and Frank Dwyer. Because the cast changes nightly, a second review concerning casting will run in Calendar at a later date.

* “The Wood Demon,” Mark Taper Forum, 135 N. The value of maintaining an ongoing classical company at the Taper has never been more apparent. And it was tantalizing to read, for example, that Nike Doukas, who was playing Sonya, also plays Yelena-in many ways Sonya’s opposite. The cast at the press preview was superb. This is not to slight the actors, however. One of these matches, between two minor characters, is especially contrived, and yet Chekhov gave this couple the final scene in the play, where it seems especially superfluous. In “Uncle Vanya,” the same character tries only to shoot someone else-and twice misses, turning the episode into a grim joke.įurthermore, two of the three couplings at the end of “The Wood Demon” will surely result in less happiness, not more.

One of the “Wood Demon” characters succeeds at suicide. “The Wood Demon” is touted as lighter than “Uncle Vanya,” with a supposedly happy ending. The ending of the play has other problems, too. Some of the other sight lines might be improved if the north seats were simply installed at a sharper rake. Instead of faces, we saw the lights, busily creating the fire effect for the other spectators. At first, from a vantage point on the south, this added the intended intimacy, which is also encouraged by D Martyn Bookwalter’s canopy of greenery covering the entire hall.īut during the last act, from a seat on the new north side, there were problems with sight lines-most notably when the entire cast looks at the light from a distant forest fire, with backs turned toward those of us on the north. The talk is punctuated with brief bursts of physical comedy and telling non-verbal details, as when Serebryakov keeps eating his lunch while everyone else is paying rapt attention to the Wood Demon’s save-the-forest speech.įor the first time, the Taper has become an arena stage, with a small section of seating on the north side. Dwyer’s staging never appears wayward or uncertain. Each role has been cast with at least two actors, so the composition of the cast is likely to change at each performance. The company worked on this project for three years-about 10 times longer than the time spent on most Taper projects. An earlier translator used “non-stop writing machine,” which might work better for a non-Latin-speaking audience. Only one quibble comes to mind-Zhorzh insults Professor Serebryakov by calling him a perpetuum mobile. The agonies and ecstasies of these people are keenly expressed in this spirited new translation by two Antaeus members, Nicholas Saunders and Frank Dwyer.

Chekhov wood demon