Chekhov’s ‘Three Sisters’ stuck in limbo in delightful ‘Debbie Downers’ in Berkeley
Chekhov's "Three Sisters" are back and stuck in limbo in the thoroughly entertaining "Debbie Downers" at Berkeley's Ashby Stage.
The three sisters in Anton Chekhov’s “Three Sisters” have always existed in a kind of limbo.
They feel lost in their tedious lives in the country, always talking about returning to Moscow but never actually going. In Shotgun Players’ new show “Kill the Debbie Downers! Kill Them! Kill Them! Kill Them Off!” those same sisters are even more in limbo than usual, as if they’ve been stuck in a kind of purgatory version of their lives for more than a hundred years.
Co-directors Mark Jackson and Beth Wilmurt keep coming back to “Three Sisters.” In 2008 they co-created and performed a devised piece based on the 1901 play called “Yes, Yes to Moscow” with some German theater artists at the San Francisco International Arts Festival.
The last two Decembers Wilmurt has performed her own cabaret work-in-progress called “Olga: A Farewell Concert” at Berkeley’s Aurora Theatre Company in the persona of the eldest sister from the classic Russian drama. “Debbie Downers” contains some echoes of both pieces but stands on its own as a fresh take on the aged material.
The piece is like a collage of different theatrical approaches, loosely structured in response to the different acts of Chekhov’s play. There’s chanting, stony-faced synchronized movement, a lot of direct address and a long informal concert section as the characters take turns singing songs at a party.
At no point does the title come up or become any less mysterious; like many other parts of the show, it’s just there to chew on and make of what you will. The whole proceeding is matter-of-factly metatheatrical, and in fact there’s a long rant in defense of metatheatricality and in condemnation of convention of all kinds.
In “Debbie Downers” it seems as if the events of “Three Sisters” have already happened, perhaps long ago, and characters either struggle to remember them or simply re-enact them. It’s a considerably slimmed-down cast of characters, as if the others managed to escape somehow, leaving these six to repeat the cycle in perpetuity.
Olga (Sam Jackson, more compellingly mischievous than worn out) repeats the same lengthy monologue about her weary existence three times in close succession, displaying completely different emotions each time to increasingly comical effect.
Youngest sister Irina (Gabby Battista, youthfully bewildered despite her protestations that she’s a grown-up) has her misanthropic admirer Solyony (coldly sardonic Nathaniel Andalis) stand in as her fiancé to try to reconstruct a conversation that they had. Middle sister Masha (Erin Mei-Ling Stewart, dreamily adrift in erotic imaginings) has a one-sided conversation with her lover, talking to an empty chair with a soldier’s cap on it.
Mikiko Uesugi’s set makes great use of a diaphanous screen behind which we can usually see sister-in-law Natasha lurking, sometimes pressed against the door, sometimes collapsed on the floor.
We’re given an unusually sympathetic view of the meddling Natasha in Amanda Farbstein’s comic portrayal. She’s anxious and socially awkward, near desperate to fit in somehow with a family that looks down on her dismissively. Billy Raphael is wistfully avuncular as the amiably useless doctor, Chebutyken, accompanying the action on a wide array of instruments.
The rest of the cast also plays instruments in various songs, of which there are many — among them 19th-century English and Russian folk songs, a popular Sinatra standard and several quirky songs by Cynthia Hopkins.
The striking design is as much a part of the action as the human element. Olga’s introductory monologue is interrupted periodically by the loud chiming of a clock in Sara Witsch’s sound design, as Ray Oppenheimer’s lighting splashes the screen behind them with bold color shifts. The sound of a semi-distant train whistle could just as easily be an actual train passing through Berkeley were it not for its persistence.
A video screen above the door introduces characters and acts and shows old film countdowns, closeup sections of the Chekhov script (in English) and, in one extended montage, footage of various contemporary disasters both natural and human.
Fragmented and mysterious and utterly riveting, it’s a lovely and loving homage to the Chekhov classic. It’s bittersweet, as befits the source material, but also playful and funny and as welcoming as it is sometimes mysterious. The sisters are throwing a party, after all. And it’s not like they’re going anywhere.
Contact Sam Hurwitt at shurwitt@gmail.com, and follow him at Twitter.com/shurwitt.
‘KILL THE DEBBIE DOWNERS! KILL THEM! KILL THEM! KILL THEM OFF!’
By Mark Jackson and Beth Wilmurt, based on a play by Anton Chekhov, presented by Shotgun Players
Through: April 21
Where: Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave., Berkeley
Running time: Two hours, no intermission
Tickets: $7-$40; 510-841-6500, shotgunplayers.org