A Month in the Country

At Soulpepper Theatre, Young Centre for the Performing Arts, until August 7

Fiona Byrne, Diego Matamoros

By Ivan Turgenev, adapted by Susan Coyne and Laszlo Marton and directed by Marto, A Month in the Country is Turgenev’s first play and it was in several ways a prototype for Chekhov. And as a Russian play, it features the traditional amount of angst, longing and a myriad of other intense emotions, plus truck loads of philosophizing.

More specifically, this is a play about an upper class married woman, Natalya, (Fiona Byrne) falling passionately and very publicly in love with one of her children’s much younger, lower class, handsome hunk of a tutor, Belyaev, (Jeff Lillico). And while this is not necessarily acceptable behaviour today, it was perceived as particularly immoral and abhorrent in the mid- to late 1800s.

It’s around this topic of love, aging and women’s restrictive responsibilities and rights with which much of this play is concerned. Beyond that, and again true to the tradition of classic Russian literature, virtually all the other characters in this play have unfulfilled desires. Whether it’s Natalya’s other secret lover, Rakitin (underplayed brilliantly by Diego Metamoros) who spends his days clinging to Natalya like an obedient puppy dog and begging her to run away with him, or any other of the play’s twelve characters, they all painfully pine for something or someone.

Unfortunately, this particular production begs the question: what is the setting, where is this story unfolding? Are we in Muskoka, or somewhere on The Black Sea in Russia, or perhaps somewhere near the Mediterranean in France? Additionally, in which century are we, the 1800’s, 1900’s or contemporary? For example, the doctor, Shpigelsky, (Joseph Zeigler) talks about his intense desire for a Russian troika as a mode of transportation, yet he’s surrounded by 21st century costumes and props.

We never really discover where or when this is taking place, since the director, (László Marton) did not create a necessary synchronicity between the script, the setting and the period. Ditto re acting styles; are the actors supposed to be naturalistic, or dealing with over-the-top farce?

In other words, by the time we reached the intermission, the awkwardness of trying to fit a period classic into a contemporary mold, left me puzzled, in spite of some beautiful performances by an extremely talented cast. Tal Gottfried as Vera, Natalya’s adopted daughter, is someone to keep track of. A recent theatre school grad, she delivers a nuanced performance that is genuinely exciting to watch.

Jeff Lillico, Tal Gottfried

Act 1 is the act that sets up the characters and the plot. This act unfolds slowly and as I suggested earlier, it is reasonably confusing. However, the second, act, in spite of all the production’s flaws and shortcomings, truly sizzles. It has the comedy, conflict and superior acting that simply isn’t there in the previous act. In fact, the most exciting, comedic yet poignant and best-acted scene in the entire  production occurs in the second act between Joseph Zeigler as the doctor and the spinster Bogdanova, (Nancy Palk). Talk about the restrictive rights of women … the good doc offers to marry the spinster under horrific conditions that border on her enslavement. It’s extremely laughable – in a tragic way.

My take on this production? In spite of the director’s awkward choice of trying to fit the past into a contemporary setting, this company has produced some wonderful character work by a strong ensemble. It gives the audience much to discuss in a play that deals with an extremely interesting, controversial, timely and universal topic that emphasizes how frequently love and logic are at odds.

This is the play that asks the question “Is it possible to be in love with two people at the same time?” Discuss …

Production Photos by Cylla von Tiedemann

About Ron Singer: Artistic Director Emeritus of The Randolph Academy of the Performing Arts, former Chair of the Department of Theatre at York University, former entertainment critic (CFRB Radio and Standard Broadcast News), and former  arts and entertainment reporter (CBC Variety Tonight).

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