A MONTH IN THE COUNTRY by Ivan Turgenev, adapted by Susan Coyne and László Marton, directed by Marton (Soulpepper). At the Young Centre (55 Mill). Runs to August 7. $32-$76, some rush. 416-866-8666. See Continuing. Rating: NNNN
Cupid’s quiver of arrows must be empty by the end of A Month In The Country, Ivan Turgenev’s tale set on a mid-19th century Russian estate.[rssbreak]
At its centre is Natalya (Fiona Byrne), wife of the workaholic Arkady (David Storch). She has a platonic admirer in the older Rakitin (Diego Matamoros) and has herself become infatuated with her son’s young tutor, Belyaev (Jeff Lillico).
He, in turn, has fallen for Natalya’s adopted daughter, Vera (Tal Gottfried), who’s being courted by a nervous neighbour (Michael Simpson) his friend, Doctor Shpigelsky (Joseph Ziegler), fancies another of Arkady’s servants, Bogdanovna (Nancy Palk), though his wooing is a long way from romance.
In short, the story resembles an amorous carousel, its figures rotating with various degrees of desire and adoration.
Susan Coyne and director László Marton’s adaptation has the same lightness of touch that Coyne brought to her version of Chekhov’s Three Sisters. Like Chekhov, Turgenev writes characters who move freely from comedy to tragedy and back again.
Marton, a regular guest with Soulpepper, fills his production with wit and humour, using the rich characterizations as the source of the script’s energy.
Byrne explores Natalya’s many moods in her shifts from controlling employer to jealous lover, demanding partner to chummy friend. She’s a woman who needs people around her, a fact that gives the end of the play a sobering touch of sadness.
Matamoros is ideal as her willing toy, aware of Natalya’s interest in the tutor and often philosophical about it. Lillico emphasizes Belyaev’s boyishness and playfulness as he skateboards or makes a kite for his young pupil, and we believe in the magnetism between him and Natalya.
The skilful Soulpepper ensemble knows how to knit the unspoken emotional connections among the characters, giving each figure a fullness that’s unrelated to his or her time on the stage.
The last half-hour may be too protracted – the resolution could surely come more quickly – but Soulpepper gives us a memorable production of this rarely performed classic.
jonkap@nowtoronto.com
