Chekhov can be heavy, but Aaron Posner’s sort of adaptation Life Sucks while maintaining much of the plot and themes of Uncle Vanya is irreverent and wildly in your face fun. Open Eye Theatre & Girl Friday Productions have teamed up to present The Play featuring performances by seven local favorites. The cast is what drew me to this production as soon as I heard about it at the Minnesota Fringe Festival opening night. Really, all I heard was Sam Landman and I was in. Later, I saw Taj Ruler and one of my wife’s “All is Calm boys” James Ramlet was on the list, I knew who my plus one would be. Being a two show day and a six show week meant I hadn’t had a chance to really look over the entire cast until I got to the theatre. I was surprised that I had seen every member of this cast before and loved their previous work. Even after four years of covering the Stages of Minnesota you’d be surprised how rare it is in a show with more than say four actors to have seen every member of a cast, or at least be able to remember every member from a previous show. This is a remarkable cast in a play that is the type of creative leap that Open Eye does best. This is a play that doesn’t play by the rules in the most engaging way, with the actors addressing the audience and expecting a response, characters making sure we understand who all the characters are and their relationships to each other.
I feel like I’ve already said too much and I’ve barely given anything away. What makes the show so enjoyable is the way that you never know what is going to happen next. Sure, if you know the plot of Uncle Vanya you can make a guess at plot wise what story beats are coming. But this is a show that is less about what happens, than how it happens. And how it happens is the joy of the show and what makes it all work is the talented cast. The way this show changes gears, the improvisational feel of the actors give and take, all required the very best and that is what we have been given. Kirby Bennett as Babs is the wise one of the group, dressed like a biker she brings a lived in feel to the been there, done that don’t judge, old family friend. Georgia Doolittle as Ella exudes the required pheromones to achieve the characters desired reaction from the audience, when you see it, you’ll understand what I mean. She’s excellent at portraying the frustration of being constantly beleaguered by would be lovers. Elizabeth Efteland is cast against type as she was in last, Christmas’s Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley, in the role of the homely Sonia. It is only her performance skills and a focus on projecting a lack of confidence that allow us to go along with the idea that she is someone who is considered unattractive. Jonathan Feld plays the object of her unrequited love Dr. Aster as a man who is attractive to several of the characters and he does that by exuding confidence and an air of not being concerned what others think of him. Sam Landman is Vanya, he just about breaks you with his vulnerability when he comes to a realization about himself in the wake of Ella’s rejection. And then has one of the best moments in the show when he asks to have the stage so he can tell the audience one more thing, it’s one of those surprises that feels out of left field, but so perfect. James Ramlet as the Professor is masterful in his portrayal of the superior acting father of Sonia and much too old husband of Ella. Throwing off speeches full of $12 words with a pomposity that gets the best rises out of Landman’s Vanya. It’s one of the best inflated ego performances and Ramlet knows just how to hold himself as he delivers the often incomprehensible to anyone outside of himself sentences. Finally, Taj Ruler brings their patented playful and eccentric style to the character of Pickles who is some kind of relative of Vanya’s. This is easily the most consistently funny performance, the sock puppet seduction scene being a prime example of Ruler’s gifts for making the most ludicrous material elicit screams of laughter, I have no idea how Georgia Doolittle kept her composure through that scene.
Directed by and set designed by Open Eye’s Joel Sass who somehow manages to fit all seven actors on the Open Eye’s tiny stage without looking like they are on top of one another. Sass has harnessed the unique talents of all seven performers and found the best way to play to each one’s strengths. One of the things that always excites me about an Open Eye production is the design of the shows. This one is no exception, Sass’s sets always look like sets but in the most magical way. As always there is more surprises in store than what we see at first look, reference Landman’s final word with the audience scene, something surprising happens with the set that is a little thing but brilliant. The Lighting Designer Kathy Maxwell also needs to be given credit for lighting Sass’s wonderful design and helping to create a sense of changing locations.
Life Sucks is a play in which the characters know they are in a play but without that being the joke or point, it’s just a way for them to address us directly. To comment on the material in a way that feels fresh and inventive. The unique thing is that the cast doesn’t stop being the characters when they address the audience or acknowledge that this is a play. They stay in character they are not actors in a play, the are characters in a play, and that allows them to break the reality of the play without taking us out of their characters. This is a fantastic production and I urge everyone to see it. Like Artistry’s The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee which I reviewed yesterday this is a show that can create theater fans. But unlike that show, you might want to be just slightly more conscious of whom you take. Make sure they are someone that is OK with something that breaks the mold a little bit. Life Sucks runs through November 5th at Open Eye Theatre in Minneapolis. For more information and to purchase tickets go to https://www.openeyetheatre.org/life-sucks
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