![]() The play veers haughtily in various directions, taking stabs at sociological class warfare alongside denunciations of the plundering of the environment. Petersburg, which rejected the piece in the last century, probably was. ![]() If Chekhov wasn’t, then the Aleksandrinsky Theatre in St. Toss in a love interest for the Wood Demon in the professor’s daughter Sonya (Nike Doukas), her nerdy jealous suitor Zheltoukhin (Raphael Sbarge) and a romantic subplot between Fedya (Eric Allan Kramer), the son of a neighboring landowner, and Yulya (Janellen Steininger), sister to Zheltoukhin. ![]() The rich landowner professor, Aleksander (Dakin Matthews), wants to sell his house and forest, a particularly galling concept to the Wood Demon (Mark Harelik), a handsome, ecologically minded doctor who lives to keep the Russian forests healthy.Įqually irked by the professor’s decision is Zhorzh (Lawrence Pressman), the brother of his first wife, who will be left homeless by the sale. Plot’s typical of Chekhov, with several bickering, upscale families ensconced on a lavish country estate. The cast, as well, is up to the task, with actors rotating nightly in the 16 roles. Director Frank Dwyer and actor Nicholas Saunders, who collaborated on the adaptation, breathe life into this Russian corpse with brisk, playful language and loose, colloquial English that, for once in Chekhov, doesn’t echo of a language primer. ![]() The result is a spectacular production of a so-so play with a terrific translation. ![]()
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