Vanya+SC

Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike Critique  For the sake of time and space, I will refer to the play in this critiquesimply as Vanya. This play centers around a brother and his adopted sister who have felt like they have not lived their lives to their full potential unlike their other sister, who is a successful actress, because they had to stay home and take care of their dying parents. I had never attended a production in the cellar theater hear at UGA, so other than the one time we went down there to tour the place, I had no idea what to expect when I entered the room. When I had last seen it, the stage was very barren and skeletonized. Unlike that time, when I entered, I was greeted with a pleasant to the eye set filled with personality. It captured the feeling that I just stepped into an elderly persons house that dated back to the 1940's. The soft light that beamed over the set made it seem very natural like you would find in a home. I was also very impressed by the working lighting fixtures that were also on the walls of the set itself. Continuing my observation of the set, I noticed that the fireplace showed signs of use by the blackening of the area around it. I give credit to the set designer for this good attention to detail. The paint choice for the set was also very appealing to the eye with the balance of dark green and a tan, almost yellowish, counterbalance. Being in the small space that it was in, the set extended almost all the way to the front row, leaving what looked like very little space between theaudience and actors.  When the play started, the room was filled with traditional Russian music which, at first, made me believe that this play was to be taken place in Russia, but when the main male lead stepped out, Vanya, who is gay and unhappy, and greeted by his adopted sister, Sonia, it is clear that they are not Russian and in fact in America. It is revealed shortly after that their parents were scholars who named them in inspiration of the Russian author Anton Chekhov. The dialogue between Vanya and Sonia, and the actors who portrayed them, seemed to be so natural and easy that it made getting into the story very easy for me. They bicker and fight just like any older siblings who never got to live life would. It was made very clear from the beginning that neither was happy with where they were, specifically Sonia when she became upset at Vanya when she was denied the opportunity to bring him his morning coffee after he had already poured it and threw the cup she brought him against the wall, smashing it to pieces. When this first happened, I was very much taken aback because I was not expecting things to escalate that quickly, then things took a comedic turn when Sonia broke a second cup of coffee the same way and Vanya was sitting on the couch with a surprised, but also not really surprised, look on his face. Just before that moment I was suspecting that this might be a comedy, and after the moment where the cup was broken I knew that was exactly what it was going to be.  I believe that the author of this play was very much able to tell the story that they were trying to convey. As I said earlier, the dialogue between characters made it easy to pick up the story at the beginning and not get lost throughout the progression of the play. In saying this, personally I find this subject matter quite compelling. I am more attracted to stories that are either based on a true story, or can be set in a real world environment. "Vanya" is definitely a story that can also a story that can be told in years to come and can be adapted to whatever time period it wants to.  This being a student production, it obviously has a cast that consists of all students. That is why when the actors and actress portraying Vanya, Sonia and Masha, who are described as being high on the number count when it comes to age, wereyoung college aged, I was not surprised. I thought that the actors did a very good job though at portraying them though. The male lead who was Vanya did well at expressing the mannerism that you would think an older gay male who is realizing that he has never fully lived his life would have. I particularly enjoyed watching the actress who was Sonia because her voice to me made me believe that I was listening to an older and depressed lady. That on top of the excellent dialogue that she was given made the story much more enjoyable for me.  When it comes to the physical production, this play had a fantastic set design in my opinion. It was a box set design that was created around the idea that the story took place in the living room of Vanya and Sonia. It very much looked like the inside of a home that you might go to today. It did have an older feel to it, but that seemed natural seeing as Vanya and Sonia are themselves old. Overall, I would say that the set design and even the lighting design was superb. In one particular instance that the lighting caught my attention to how detailed it was, the dialogue between several characters was taking place further into the set and the lighting was raised on those in the back while the lighting on those in the front was lowered. I had never paid attention to any detail like this before in any of the other plays I have seen, and I found this for some odd reason to be quite enjoyable.  Being a comedy, the audience responded quite well to the jokes and hinted humor when it was presented. I even found myself chuckling at some scenes that might not have been intended to be humorous, but they reminded me of situations in my past that made me smile. Before the play, I did not have much conversation with anyone else waiting to see it. I had herd, however, from other people in the days leading up to me seeing it that the play was very well done and it was very comical.  I think that I could urge some of my friends to go see this movie. Most of them are fans of either theater or comedy shows or both so I do not think I would be hard pressed to get them to see it. I have told a couple of people in my other classes that if they had the chance, that they should try and see this very well told story. That being said, I believe that if the opportunity arose for me to see another play that was written by Christopher Durang <span class="NormalTextRun SCX218624438" style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman,serif; font-size: 16px;"> I would take it. This was a well written story that I believe that many people can in some ways relate to. I think there are moments in all of our lives that we find ourselves feeling like we have not accomplished anything worthy of our remembrance. The cast and crew of this cellar theater production did wonderful at bringing these characters to life. It was much more than I thought it was going to be and I am very much appreciative of the hard work this young team put into it. I am looking forward to seeing their next endeavor.