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Blacksun Theatre Company presents
100% Comedy 100% Chekhov
Directed by Jemma Gross
Greenwich Playhouse
28 July -16 Aug 09
Abbeyfest
August 17-22, 09
A review by Chad Armitstead for EXTRA! EXTRA!
Chekhov’s ruble-hungry, not-quite-up-to-it characters are treading the boards all over the capital and seem to be playing well to a financial recovery-deprived populace. Chekhov is alive and well in London. Blacksun Theatre Company isthe resuscitator du jour, with their collection of shorts, 100% Comedy 100% Chekhov. The show continues their ongoing mission to bring classic plays to a wider audience within the context of the writers’ times. The night kicks off with The Sneeze. The period-clad cast of four filters onstage, greeting the audience as they go, blurring the line between entertainer and entertained in the intimate attic space of the Greenwich Playhouse. They then sit, take in an opera and deal with sinus malfunctions. Following The Sneeze, a bill collector harasses a widow in The Bear. Then it’s on to the all-too-familiar celebrations of bankers while the rest of the world suffers in The Jubilee. The night rounds itself off with a menagerie of distinguished and ridiculous characters from all walks of Chekhovian life in The Wedding. If you find yourself one of the money-worried masses, Blacksun’s comedic brand of Red Bull-fuelled Chekhov might be just the ticket for an hour of escape. With all the energy of a sketch comedy troupe, along with a pious (though at times perhaps blind) devotion to the almighty laugh, the company finds success in creating a night with Chekhov that even the most theatre-averse could enjoy. The flash-bulb tableau ending of each piece and the off-kilter detuned-piano-pluck ‘tick-tock’ between them gives a sort of ‘life is a circus’ feeling, reminding us that most comedy catches us out at our worst, in the moments when we really should be at our best—at the opera, at weddings and at work. Much of Chekhov’s comedy is potted in the soils of tragedy and the social graces of his age. Blacksun has decided to play the comic range of the pieces almost exclusively, however, a choice not unprecedented of late. At times abandoning the reserve characteristic of the era, the scenes are frenetic from the word ‘go.’ This perhaps leaves less opportunity for comic crescendo. In executing their brand of full-throttle comedy, the company may be leaving some undiscovered country in the realms of silence and subtlety. The cast’s commitment certainly does, however, make the ensemble shine. The Wedding proved to be a climax of impressive dramatic acrobatics, a true comedic ensemble flexing its muscle to create twelve characters out of four actors. The production’s hallmark wall of comedic energy emphasizes Blacksun’s ethic for accessibility. The defining feature of the evening is clear: 100% comedy. And after all Chekhov did primarily write these shorts for his local comic magazines. Though the show never claims to be a monument of thespic Chekhovian achievement, it is bursting with vitality, achieving a pace that some molasses-down-a-gradual-incline Chekhov shows should envy. Often frenetically funny, 100% Comedy 100% Chekhov is a great way to spend an evening and a tenner. And if you don’t have either one to spare, it’s something you’ll have in common with Chekhov’s characters.
100% Comedy 100% Chekhov will be playing at Abbeyfest 2009 from August 17-22. www.blacksuntheatrecompany.co.uk
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ary Couzens