Check Out Chekhov

by Jerry Meyerle

For those of you who are not familiar with Live Arts, it's a small theater right off East Market street across from the police station near the Downtown Mall. It's been around for about seven years and is one of the hot spots of this urbane little town most of us call home for the time being. Its advisory board includes such famous Charlottesville residents as Rita Dove, John Casey, Dave Matthews, and Sissy Spacek. Recent productions such as Monster Therapy and Cabaret have sold out every Friday and Saturday night, indicating that I'm not the only one who thinks it's hot.

Live Arts is more than anyone could expect from a small theater house in central Virginia. The atmosphere is friendly, the actors are approachable if you have any questions lingering the in back of your mind or if you just like being friendly. There is a champagne reception following the opening night of each new production following Friday night's show, where the director and actors lead a discussion with the audience about the evening's performance. Wednesday nights are pay-what-you-can (no joke), and during many shows they serve dinner and drinks. It's a cosmopolitan atmosphere where you're as likely to run into professors as students. It's a short trip off Grounds into the granola intellectual life of this bookish little town.

Running through April 4th is The Seagull, by Russian playwright Anton Chekhov. It is the story of a an aspiring, innovative young writer, Konstantin, who tries desperately to break into the artistic circles of Moscow. He lives in the country and is relegated to an inferior position due to his middle-class background. On his family's farm, he experiments with new ways of writing and performing plays, but has difficulty convincing anyone to overlook convention and keep an open mind towards his work. His mother, Arkadina, is a famous actress pathetically trying to hold on to her youth -- a selfish woman who refuses to aid her son in his career. She parades around Russia with a young writer half her age, refusing to acknowledge that Russian society is in need of a serious overhaul. Other characters include Konstantin's love, Nina, an aspiring actress who dreams of one day enjoying the Moscow limelight; Konstantin's uncle, a retired government officer trying to get what he can out of the last few years of what he sees as a wasted life; Trigorin, an uninspiring and mediocre novelist who enjoys the fame that Konstantin hankers after; Dorn, a philandering, self-satisfied obstetrician; and others. The play is set in the Russian countryside, while Moscow is constantly and reverently mentioned as a distant city full of excitement and the promise of fame. It's a prerevolution Moscow, its high culture dominated by the frivolous decadence of a rapidly waning aristocracy. The story follows Konstan-tin as he struggles to be recognized by the critics as a writer on the vanguard of a new period in literature and the theater. It also follows Nina as she struggles with her dreams of becoming a famous actress. Each scene is a brief but vivid glimpse into the lives of these turn-of-the-century Russians, each obsessed in one way or another with fame and artistic genius. Any aspiring artist can relate to at least one of the characters in The Seagull; Chekhov wrote himself into the play, giving the audience an interesting look at how he viewed his own career as a writer. The play works on many levels, with plots and subplots and stories within stories; under the play's film of calm, tensions come to a boil.

Director John Owen has been part of the Charlottesville art scene since 1974. He is a professional interior designer and businessman, and is well-known as a decorative painter. Of the production, he says, "I'm doing something about discovery, chemistry, and dramatic creativity." When asked why he chose to produce The Seagull, Owen replied, "Well, I always wanted to do Chekhov." Owen remarked that Chekhov's plays, although written a century ago, are as pertinent to modern America as any Oscar-winning film. It deals with young people's frustrated dreams about becoming famous, and with the dissatisfaction of those who actually make it in the big city. The Seagull was first performed in the Moscow theater in 1898 and was one of Chekhov's first successful plays. Its characters are depicted with a sensitive, unassuming realism that was rare at that time. Its themes, still very current, include the inability to communicate, boredom with life, obsession with fame, and other neuroses. It's an intricate play that can be seen many times and still be interesting. It is a play within a play, a story within a story. Some call it a tragedy, but Chekhov insisted that it was a comedy. Whether it is one or the other depends entirely on the general mood. What is unforgettable about The Seagull is that it mixes farce and pathos so perfectly that it's impossible to tell when to laugh and when to be serious. What's beautiful is that it doesn't matter.

Owen remarked that since the production opened two weeks ago, the audience has, on some nights, laughed out loud the whole way through, while on others no one has made a sound. Owen's ability to maintain the ambiguity of this line between comedy and tragedy is very impressive. The acting is quality, quality, quality. The players are generally older and none of them are students to my knowledge. If he is biased one way or the other, it doesn't come out in the production. W. Tony Powell brought out the suffering of Konstantin with precision, not allowing the frustrated unhappiness of his character to throw a dark blanket over the comedy of the drama. The humorous character of the philandering doctor, Dorn, was played very well by Jerry Stokes as was the character of Paulina played by Geri Schirmer; together they make the play funny from beginning to end. Cristan Keighley plays Trigorin with the matter-of-fact cowardice and unconcern that make his character simple and amusing while providing the impetus for the tragedy in the play. The set design is elegant and the lighting is well done. Several of the actors made forgiveable mistakes with their lines, but overall the production was well done.

All the actors are amazingly talented. get out and see this play, and I guarantee that you will be surprised. You might even find yourself saying, "Live Arts, where have you been during all those boring college weekends that I spent wishing I'd gone to school in a big city?"

If you don't see at least one of their shows before you graduate, then you haven't given Charlottesville the chance that it deserves. Live Arts isn't Culbreth and it's not the movies -- the acting is going on right in front of you, and it's entertaining, intelligent, and, most of all, civilized.

Chekhov's The Seagull will be running through Saturday, April 4th. Call 977-4177 for more information.