5pound theatre
Presents
2 SHORT RUSSIANS
Vodka, Fucking and Television
By Maksym Kurochkin
The Bear
By Anton Chekhov
Jason Cavanagh –
Director/Designer
Jack Beeby – Hero/Luka
Clare Callow – Fucking
Susannah Firth – Vodka/Popova
Dmitri Pronin –
Television/Smirnoff
The Bear is
a beautifully crafted piece of writing and a lovely introduction to Chekhov as
a writer of comedies. This staging is
just delightful with all three actors excelling. What it may lack in precision is made up for
with energy commitment and a very real grasp, and expression, of instinctive
truth.
A couple of years ago I was
sent to review a production of The Bear and
was unable to complete the task as I found the whole way to serious and
precious and possibly, on retrospect, slow and labored. Not so this production it is fast and furious
and hilarious. Jack Beeby sets the scene
with a youthful interpretation of a cynical aged manservant Luka with just a
hint of clown.
Propova, a recently widowed
woman of some property, is the type of role that Susannah Firth inhabits very
satisfyingly on the surface whilst realizing the subtext with subtle nuance. And Dmitri Pronin just is The Bear – no
question.
Vodka, Fucking &Television is just as fascinating as it promises to be with
staging that is nothing short of inspired.
As Hero Jack Beeby fights with his existential angst in trying to modify
his life by eliminating one of his fabric of sustaining, yet at times
debilitating, pleasures. These
addictive supports are portrayed as personas that ‘arc up against’ being
rejected and fight for supremacy. I do
have a small ‘beef’ with this production, in that, to my sensibilities Lust is
ill cast. Clare Callow certainly interprets
the character strongly and appropriately and is sexy, but her voluptuousness
somehow defines her as a seductress of a much earlier era and thus dates a
relatively contemporary work. This is a
tiny quibble in another great night at the Owl and Pussycat.
It is a rewarding pleasure to
follow 5pounds’s offerings.
(For Stage Whispers)
