Dedication

To my partner of 25 years, John Augustine

Introduction

INTRODUCTION

by David Hyde Pierce

In May of 2012, I got this note from Christopher Durang:

Dear David,

I have a new play that is being co-produced in the fall by McCarter Theatre and Lincoln Center. It’s called Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike. It’s not a parody; it’s set in the present in Bucks County. Vanya and Masha are brother and sister, and Sonia is their adopted sister. They were given those names by their professor parents, who are now dead. But in some ways they do resemble Chekhov characters. I like to say the play takes Chekhovian characters and themes and puts them in a blender. The play is funny, but has genuine emotion in it as well. Nicky Martin is to direct. Sigourney W will be Masha, Kristine Nielsen, Sonia.

Chris asked if I would read the play, and if I would play Vanya, and I did both those things, and I’m so glad I did. It’s a very funny play, and a field day for the actors in all six roles. It is also richly layered, and its odd mix of contemporary references with Chekhovian themes and language creates a uniquely Durangian world.

The opening is a good example of what I’m talking about. It takes place in the morning room of a country house—a very Chekhovian setting, though this happens to be in Pennsylvania:

SONIA I brought you coffee, dearest Vanya.

VANYA I have some.

SONIA Oh. But I bring you coffee every morning.

VANYA Well, yes, but you weren’t available.

SONIA Well, I was briefly in the bathroom, you couldn’t wait?

The first line could be straight from Chekhov, the last line definitely isn’t. In five lines Chris reveals the relationship between the siblings, and establishes the world of the play. I read those lines, and I was hooked.

Chris actually wrote the character of Masha for his longtime pal and collaborator Sigourney Weaver, and he wrote Sonia for Kristine Nielsen, another dear friend and a veteran of Chris’s plays. I mention this so you’ll know, as you read, that the voices and the style of performance weren’t exaggerated or extreme—the roles were played by actors who inhabited them easily. The younger actors—Billy Magnussen, Shalita Grant, and Genevieve Angelson—were, to quote Masha, “pretty and luminous and full of youthful hope and enthusiasm.” They were also very gifted and highly skilled, and played their characters as people, not caricatures.