Press

November 8, 2006

Show Business Weekly: Theater Review: The Sneeze

Review by Rebecca Jones

When Phoenix Theatre Ensemble advertises a “Play in a Pub,” they deliver. The cost of a ticket to The Sneeze, a series of comic short stories and plays by Anton Chekhov, adapted and translated by Michael Frayn, includes two drink tickets and a whole lot of atmosphere. This would be enough to sedate even the hardest audience member, but luckily, that isn’t necessary. The charming production does full justice to the often under-appreciated roguish humor of Chekhov, whose familiar theme of class relations is presented throughout — typified by scenes between a wealthy Russian landowner and his sons’ French tutor, a rich widow who encounters a poor landowner, a minor government official who sneezes on a senior government official, and more. The unconventional configuration of the theater, designed by director John Giampetro, places the action at the bar itself instead of on the stage at the other side of the room, creating an intimacy that successfully draws the audience into the action.

Gesundheit! Jason O’Connell sets out to prove that Chekhov and booze go hand in hand in The Sneeze - part of Phoenix Theatre Ensemble’s “Play in a Pub” series.

Lillian Rhiger’s 19th century costumes help retain a sense of period without detracting from the immediacy of the production. The three-person cast of Dan Matisa, Jason O’Connell, and Laura Piquado deftly navigates through the collection of colorful characters presented to them by each of the six pieces. O’Connell’s subtle, complex performance is especially impressive, particularly in the one-man one-act The Evils of Tobacco, in which he attempts in vain to deliver a lecture on that subject. Matisa and Piquado show commendable energy and skillful use of physical comedy, but their performances are at times heavy-handed. The number of different roles provides a great showcase for the actors’ versatility, though Chekhov tends to use many of the same stereotypical figures in all his work. While the casting is uniformly logical, Matisa and O’Connell keep turning up in suspiciously typical roles. It would have been interesting to see an occasional shift in the power dynamic.

The lighting, designed by Jeffery E. Salzberg, and the sound by John Giampetro, keeps in line with the pub ambience. The lights follow the actors as they effectively utilize the space around the bar, never jarring us out of the intimacy of the setting. The house music, characterized by contemporary artists like Gnarls Barkley and the Flaming Lips, yields to what sounds like Russian folk music as our guide into the world of the play, and we willingly follow, clutching our drink tickets, ready for a good laugh.