Vanya & Sonia & Masha & Spike by Christopher Durang is a smart comedy that won many awards including the Tony Award for best play in 2013. It revolves around middle-aged single siblings living in the Bucks County country house where they took care of their parents before they died.
Vanya, 57, is gay. Sonia, 52, was adopted by their college teacher parents when she was 8. The parents loved the playwright, Anton Chekhov, thus their names. They were characters in his play, “Uncle Vanya. Their sister, Masha, is also named for a character in a Chekhov play, “The Sea Gull.”. She is coming for a visit.
It begins with siblings Vanya (Alan Safier) and Sonia (Amanda Schoonover) living a quiet life in the country. They are bemoaning their lost lives. But it anything but quiet inside their heads. Neither has had a significant relationship and neither has worked for many years. Their sister has paid all the bills, first in supporting the parents, then continuing to pay for her siblings in the house. She has been reasonably successful with her acting career, though she mourns the loss of her five husbands who all left her. She is not an easy person.
We watch these unhappy siblings as they mourn their own issues and even go after each other at times. Sonia is constantly putting herself down. Vanya is sad and painfully lonely when he thinks about what could have been as compared with the way his life turned out. And Masha (Angela Pierce), despite all her bravado, is just as just as insecure… as an actress and as a woman. She is competitive with everyone, particularly her sister.
Another major character is Cassandra (Megan McDermott), the house cleaner, who is also a fortune teller with some psychic powers. She often predicts foreboding events to come.
Masha arrives with her young boyfriend, Spike, (Dante Gianetta), a hulk of a young man 30 years her junior. He is constantly showing off his muscular body but is not very bright. They are going to a costume party, she as Snow White, and she wants her siblings to go as her dwarves. She informs Vanya and Sonia that she plans to sell the house and leave them destitute. Still, there is much humor under their painful stories.
Though there are many references to Chekhov, you need not be familiar with the famous Russian playwright to enjoy Durang’s play. The issues are universal, from the dysfunctional family and self-doubt to jealousy and control. The second act gets more serious and there is less humor, as each of the siblings struggles to escape their woeful destiny.
The story is powerful. The costumes by Linda B. Stockton are beautiful. The actors were superb. It is a wonderful tribute to Durang who lived in Bucks County and passed away last year. Under the skillful direction of Ken Kaiser, we watch these real people in this black comedy evolve, and we are listening intently and laughing at the same time.
“Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike” by Christopher Durang at Bristol Riverside Theatre, 120 Radcliffe St., Bristol, PA 19007, 215-785-0100, brstage.org, thru October 5,, 2025
Philadelphia Theater Reviews by Frank Burd 