"Backstage West" 11/28/01 Chekhov’s Shorts Reviewed By Terri Roberts

The American Russian Theatrical Alliance makes an impressive debut on the local theatre scene with this short, invigorating, well-produced hour of entertainment. Two Chekhov one-acts about love and marriage, The Proposal and The Bear, are presented within the framework of a group of small-town citizens eager to dispute a disparaging newspaper story that paints them and their town as boring and uninteresting. (Man With a Newspaper is written by Elmar Mamedov, who did the Chekhov translations, as well.) To prove the writer wrong (and three guesses who that turns out to be), these folks decide to stage for the acknowledged audience two stories about what happened to some of their fellow citizens in their quests for holy matrimony.

The program bills the show as "An Evening of Russian Vaudeville," which sets the tone quite well. All the grand passion of the Russian people is here, and that energy is bumped up a notch or two with fast-paced direction, a willingness to indulge in buffoonery (if called for), and a cast of strong, grounded actors who obviously know this terrain well enough--and trust themselves, director Dmitri Boudrine (who also created the virginal white scenic design), and one another well enough--to let go and see what happens.

Both one-acts illustrate the all-too-human foibles of their characters in all their confusing, maddening glory. In The Proposal, a jittery Ivan Vasilievitch Lomov (the delightful Sergei Sage) visits the home of his neighbor, Stepan Stepanovitch Chubukov (splendid Joey D'Auria), to ask for his daughter Natalia's hand in marriage. But in trying to pop the question, Ivan and the beautiful, proud Natalia (a willfully wonderful Olga Vilner) get sidetracked with ever-escalating arguments about such incidentals as who owns what land and who has the better dog. Sparks soon become full-fledged fireworks as these three struggle hilariously to prove they are right and to get what they want. Anger again leads to more amorous adventures in The Bear (meaning an insult), in which a haughty, narcissistic widow, Popova (Anastasia Drake), is visited by the handsome, debt-ridden Smirnov (Ed Cunningham), who's seeking payment of the money owed him by her late husband...Cunningham, particularly, is a grand wonder of contrasts, switching from explosive ("I want to blow up the world!") to astonished ("Ohh, pickles!") in the flick of an eye...

... It's well known that Chekhov often bemoaned the fact that his plays were treated more as drama than the comedies he intended them to be. No doubt he would be pleased with ARTA's first efforts. There's much more here to look forward to.

"NoHo LA" 11/20/01 Chekhov’s Shorts by Hank Rosenfeld

Ever wonder what "the bear" was in Anton Chekhov's one-act, "The Bear?" A horrible insult actually, only this "bear," as portrayed by actor Ed Cunningham, steals the evening of Chekhov's Shorts, the first production by the American Russian Theatrical Alliance (ARTA), the first ever English-Russian Theater Company in California.

Cunningham is the sympathetic hothead creditor Smirnov. All the poor guy ("there is no dress code for creditors," he laments) wants is to get paid. He could be any of us dealing with a disinterested boss, or in this case a self-interested estate owner Popova (Anastasia Drake alternating with Tatiana Chekhova), who is just "not in the mood." His response? "Vodka! I need vodka!"

Cunningham/Smirnov's outpourings are everyman worries: "I'm too nice. I'm a softy. Put a skirt on me!" Overwhelmed by his frustration- he'd "rather sit smoking on a barrel of gunpowder" than deal with women- and his passion- he "fought three duels over women, walked out on twelve women, and had nine walk out" on him- Smirnov has the makings of the good doctor's later deep-hearted human, Astrov in "Uncle Vanya." "I'm so mad I could blow up the world!" shouts Smirnov, but after a pause adds, "Oooh-pickles!" When he challenges Popova to a duel and she agrees, Chekhov's stand-in consigns our world to come: "There's emancipation! Equality of the sexes!"

Indeed, this entire ARTA cast gives us the bright heat and white-draped couch conflicts we love in our Chekhov. But we also get absolute accents and enough raucous Russian energy to send the master's turn-of-the-last-century message overflowing its top: the bourgeois absurdities in "The Proposal" and "The Bear" will soon enough be run over 20th-century style when all their metaphorical horses break down the stalls. Elmar Mamedov's translations offer classic, hip timing (perhaps only a Russo-LA company can provide such?). Karina Abramyan's costumes are superb. Director Dmitri Boudrine's vaudeville pitch is intense. At times, the hilarious insults elevating "The Bear" into "Taming of a Shrew" territory, just squawk in "The Proposal."

This new company is loaded for promise, and even promise bilingual productions. "Bojimoy!" screams Joey D- Auria as "land-snatcher" Stepan Stepanovitch. This means "Oh my God!" in English. We can almost hear George W. and best pal Vladimir using them as interchangeably as Chekhov estate owners terrified by a new century. See Guide for Lisitng.