I’m so glad you’re here! Whether you’ve been braving the unknown since the first theaters started reopening their doors last year, or whether this is your first time back indoors for live theatre for a while, thank you. 

Christopher Durang had no idea what was coming when he wrote this play. As it opens, we find two family members who are interminably stuck at home, bickering about this and that, anxious about the future, and wondering if anything will ever change. Fast forward to the past two years, and that describes pretty much everybody.

The specter of our thesaurus-straining times has informed a great deal of our production- most notably in our approach to casting. As the Greek alphabet started running out of letters to use for new variants, I decided to double-cast as many roles as possible in the play. I was incredibly fortunate that for most roles in the play, I was able to assemble 2 excellent ensembles. Whether you are here on a “B” cast or “A” cast night, I can assure you that you are getting a great interpretation of these characters and their story. 

Whenever I describe this play to people, I have to clarify that it is, in fact, a comedy. “It’s about a pair of siblings who have devoted their entire adult lives to taking care of their aging parents and now their parents are gone and they don’t know what to do…and it’s a comedy!”

It’s exactly the sort of comedy that would have tickled Anton Chekhov’s funny bone. Chekhov comes up a lot in this play (starting in the title with the Slavic names borrowed from his characters). His most famous plays (The Seagull, The Cherry Orchard, Three Sisters, and Uncle Vanya) follow members of the Russian aristocracy in the late 19th century. Everyone with half an eye open could see that a revolution was coming, but Chekhov shows his characters dreaming of better days as the world slowly catches fire around them. You probably know some people like that. Our world is full of fires, and it’s full of dreams. People are funny that way.

But you don’t have to be a Russian revolutionary or a historian to have fun here tonight. The play is for you. Go ahead and laugh. And if you do, feel free to pick up a ticket to see the other cast as well!