His plays dramatize the comedy of our pretensions to importance. American Repertory Theater artistic director Robert Brustein wants to pull off the same synthesis of pathos and punch lines in his adaptation of three of Chekhov's farces. The neurotic stylizations of director Yuri Yeremin dunk Chekhov's broad comedies in chic depression. The catch is that Chekhov's early farces are essentially inspired vaudeville. The A.R.T. production trucks in angst and then highlights it with an avant-garde magic marker.
Farce is propelled by appetite.
Characters are in a frenzy, chasing after money or sex. By distorting Chekhov's driving rhythms, the staging dampens and at times sentimentalizes the anarchic energies, verbal and physical, of the pieces. Director Yerenin provides a chorus of actors who imitate barnyard animals, a clever but distracting device. The A.R.T's veteran performers are fine as long as Brustein and Yeremin stay out of their way. Brustein wants to provide a context for the bleakness, so he tosses in readings from letters the troubled Chekhov exchanged with his actress wife.