bww review: anya and masha and katya and the big prick: … · 2016. 8. 11. · secrets and lies:...

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April 18 1:37 PM2016

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BWW Review: Anya and Masha and Katya andThe Big Prick: FAIRYTALE LIVES OF RUSSIANGIRLS

Playwright Meg Miroshnik's darkly comic The Fairy Tale Lives of Russian Girls is given asuperb production by Nashville's Actors Bridge Ensemble - in their ninth annual collaborationwith the Belmont University Department of Theatre and Dance - featuring a sextet ofextraordinary actors who are having what appears to be the time of their lives under thedirection of Leah Lowe, chair of the department of theater at Vanderbilt University.

Delving into the deeply complex culture of Russian life and history - and the fanciful, yetsomehow disturbing, tales that have inspired and informed Russian literature for centuries -Miroshnik's equally complex play offers an intriguing and entertaining treatise on thatliterature, brought to life with contemporary twists and turns that make the stories moreaccessible to modern theater-goers, while inviting comparisons and contrasts of Russia in the21st century with the ancient Tsarist era and the hardships of the Communist years of the lastcentury.

It all sounds very deep and dour - and perhaps daunting to the theater-goer just out for a fewhours' transportive entertainment - but what Miroshnik's script delivers, and which Lowe andcompany present, is something far less dogmatic and heavy-handed. Rather, it's something farmore creative that is certain to set imaginations soaring.

In fact, Lowe's artful rendition of The Fairy Tales Lives of Russian Girls is richly told andcaptivatingly acted by her estimable ensemble of actors. With vibrant intensity, the six womenimmediately rivet the audience's attention to the imaginative tale delivered onstage. Armed withwit, warmth and a certain skewed sensibility, they present a work that might be described asfrightening at moments, yet somehow they are able to create moments of almost unexpectedlightheartedness that leaven the proceedings with laughter and a sense of whimsy.

The duality of the characters portrayed in Miroshnik's script ensures that attention will be paid:Lowe's vision is exhilaratingly brought to life by her cast (led by Actors Bridge veterans Rachel

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Johnna McCarthy, Madeline Marconi, Austin

Williams and Ashley Joye

Agee and CJ Tucker and aquartet of younger BelmontUniversity actors - AustinWilliams, MadelineMarconi, Johnna McCarthyand Ashley Joye) thataudiences are engaged forthe one hour and 45minutes of storytelling thattranspires onstage beforethem.

Miroshnik offers a uniqueview of post-Cold WarRussia in the aftermath ofthe dissolution of the USSR, told via Russian folktales from the equally repressive Tsarist era.Her play focuses on a summer spent abroad (ostensibly to study and to improve her Russianaccent) by Anya - aka Annie, "like the orphan" - played with cold conviction and youthfulignorance by Austin Williams, who provides the play with an immensely likable protagonist asshe commands the stage effortlessly. Anya, a Russian-born Jew who left as a child with herparents after the Communist regime was ousted, is sent "home" to reclaim her mother's legacyfrom an outwardly kind, but deeply sinister, woman known to her only as her "aunt" Yaroslava -while taking some summer classes in "Russian for Business." Williams' performance is at onceexuberant and weirdly quirky, the perfect combination to create a character with which theaudience can easily identify.

As Annie becomes acclimated to the world that she was save from thanks to détente andemigration, she meets Masha (Madeline Marconi), a young neighbor woman who lives with herboyfriend Mischa, who is unbearable, boorish and demanding. Masha introduces her to Katya(Johnna McCarthy), who longs for the stability she thinks her married lover, The Tsar, can giveher; and through Katya, Annie meets Nastya (Ashley Joye), a prostitute whose franklyunvarnished view of life delivers perhaps the most pertinent lessons the American collegestudent learns during her abbreviated stay in Russia.

Marconi, McCarthy and Joye are wonderfully cast in each of their roles and deliver focused andcommitted performances in the process. Marconi's sardonic and pragmatic Masha, McCarthy'sambitious and calculating Katya, and Joye's cynical and driven Nastya seem far more authenticand genuine than might be expected from a simple reading of their characters.

With enough skill, talent and experience between them to make even the most cynicaltheater-goer sit up and take notice, Agee and Tucker deliver performances that are staggering -watching each woman onstage is like taking part in a master class and you can't help but wonderhow much the younger actresses have added to their own bags of theatrical tricks after workingwith the two for the rehearsal period. Tucker displays her wide range of skills by seamlesslyplaying four different characters in the piece, each one strikingly different from the other. Ageeskillfully underplays her role of Yaroslava and Baba Yaga (the latter of the two is the legendary"wicked" sorceress of Russian fairytales who travels in a high-flying mortar to hunt down younggirls to roast and eat, using a pestle to make them submit) in such a surprising way that she'salmost unrecognizable and maintains that level of commitment to deliver the theatrical goods inthe process.

Certainly, the cast is aided by the production's eye-popping design aesthetic, which isexemplified by Paul Gatrell's stunning scenic design, which evocatively captures the decay of theformer USSR from a 21st century perspective. Richard Davis' beautiful lighting design providesthe requisite illumination to ensure Gatrell's set be seen at its most awe-inspiring and is, quite

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possibly, among the best lighting design we've encountered in a local theater production. JessicaMueller's costume design, which ideally captures each character's personality and gives a veryreal sense of contemporary morals and mores to be found among Moscow's jaded hipsters, andTaylor Thomas' sound design, which provides the necessary ambience for the tale, add much tothe production's overall success in transporting audiences to an almost otherworldly setting.

For the past nine years, the collaboration between Actors Bridge and Belmont has resulted insome of Nashville's finest theater, and rest assured, The Fairytale Lives of Russian Girls raisesthe bar for future projects still to come.

The Fairytale Lives of Russian Girls. By Meg Miroshnik. Directed by Leah Lowe.Produced by Vali Forrister and Paul Gatrell. Presented by Actors Bridge Ensembleand the Belmont University Department of Theatre and Dance. At Belmont's BlackBox Theatre, Nashville. Through April 23. For details, go to www.actorsbridge.org.Running time: 1 hour, 45 minutes (with no intermission).

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Jeffrey Ellis is a Nashville-basedwriter, editor and critic, who's beencovering the performing arts inTennessee for more than 25 years. In1989, Ellis (read more...)

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bww review: anya and masha and katya and the big prick: … · 2016. 8. 11. · secrets and lies:...

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