A director obsessed with a great play–Anton Chekhov’s “The Seagull,” for example–typically makes so many creative compromises owing to time, money and timidity en route to a full production, the results instill in the director a feeling of “Oh, well. Next time.”
So why not three “Seagull”-related experiments in the same season? Redmoon Theater artistic director Jim Lasko is doing just that. “Nina,” a fetching outdoor production, continues through Sunday near the Humboldt Park Boat House. Part II of Redmoon’s “Chekhov Cycle” comes in March, as part of the Steppenwolf Studio Theatre season. And in Part III, “Loves Me … Loves Me Not,” Redmoon moves outdoors again, at a locale to be announced.
“Nina” is dominated by boxes and bicycles. As you take your seat beneath the trees near the Humboldt fishing pond, your eye takes in four big wooden crates, three of them up on supports. These are the homes of various characters, and when designer Stephanie Nelson’s inventions reveal themselves fully, it’s a treat.
A cyclist propels a portable stage on wheels into place, near the four-piece band. This is the site of the “Seagull” play-within-a-play, written by Kostya (Jim Slonina), tormented son of the larger-than-life hack actress Arkadina (Kristin Randall Burrello). Later the aspiring actress Nina (Sharon Lanza) pedals in on a big white contraption. Arkadina and her lover Trigorin (Sigurthor Heimisson) arrive on a splendid golf cart bearing three burgundy-toned thrones.
In this often wordless “Seagull,” Sorin (Blake Montgomery, in a black fright wig) stage-manages the action and reads many of the lines from his wheelchair. Director Lasko and company turn Chekhov’s pining provincials into visual emblems of silent-film comic suffering, especially in the Buster Keaton moping of Masha (Vanessa Stalling). Stalling originally played Nina; after suffering an injury during an opening-week performance she and Lanza switched roles.
Late in “Nina,” which has its longueurs as well as its felicities, Montgomery urges his actors to repeat a series of actions ever-faster, in the style of Feydeau. (The raven-haired Lanza executes some very funny balletic leaps.) The tactic, in a weird way, happens to be historically accurate: The first, disastrous 1896 performance of “The Seagull” in Petersburg was staged by a company known for its French farces.
Sometimes Lasko lets an idea run its course without sufficient inspiration or rhythmic variation. The play’s sexual energy is suppressed here. But “Nina” charms nonetheless. There’s something remarkable about seeing characters running, or cycling, from hundreds of yards away. Everyone gets to show off some goofball dance moves in the between-acts olios, scored by music director Mark Messing’s delightful quartet. (Messing also plays Medvedenko, here an earnest tuba player.)
The most memorable image in “Nina” finds Kostya and his mother gazing toward the pond, where their respective lovers are about to make them cuckolds. Chekhov would’ve admired such moments for their delicate, clownish beauty. I’m looking forward to the next part of the Redmoon Chekhov experiment.
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“Nina”
Where: Redmoon Theater at the Humboldt Park Boat House, 1351 N. Sacramento Ave.
When: 7 p.m. Thursday and Friday; 3 and 7 p.m. Saturday and Sunday
Phone: 773-388-9031
