On a small set in the Quilhot Black Box, with audience members seated in the round, the Tower Players bring “Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike” to life Thursday and Friday at 7 p.m. and Saturday at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m.
The play begins with a grey-haired couple just out of bed—Vanya in blue-striped flannel pajamas and Sonia wrapped in a plush bathrobe.
Director George Angell said they chose the black box because of the edgier moments, but described the humor of the play as “delicious.”
“Sonia deals with depression. Some people move on and get help, but she really uses it as a way to get attention,” said sophomore Anastasia Dennehy, who plays Sonia. “She’s also so awkward. She’s a high schooler stuck in a 52-year-old’s body.”
She added that although Vanya, Sonia, and Masha – three siblings in their 50s – have lived good lives, none of them really did what they wanted to do.
Oldest sibling Vanya, played by senior Aaron Pomerantz, simply wants everyone to get along and not fight, Pomerantz said. He wants to keep the peace, but ends up snapping and ranting for a good 10 minutes, saying all the things he’s been keeping inside for the past 15 years.
Although Vanya and Sonia stayed home to take care of their elderly parents who have passed away by the time the play begins, they never did anything with their lives after the loss. They spend most days in their pajamas, sitting in front of their picture window waiting for a blue heron, defining themselves as “wild turkeys.”
Their youngest sister Masha, on the other hand, went on to become a B-rate actress in order to pay for the family bills.
“She’s very much the center of attention and a drama queen,” sophomore Gwendolyn Hodge said. “But she’s not happy with her career and is having some regrets when she goes home.”
She comes home one weekend to tell her older siblings she plans to sell the house she’s been paying for, dragging along her “muscle-bound boy toy” Spike, played by junior Nick Gibbs.
“He doesn’t catch social cues at all,” Gibbs said about his character, who appears twice in boxer briefs despite
Masha’s wishes. “He’s at various ends of the spectrum. On one end he is flirtatious and over the top, on the other end he likes to wade in the pond and play with frogs.”
Gibbs added that being in your underwear in front of an audience is like your nightmares coming true.
“I’ve come a long way,” Gibbs said. “When I first came to Hillsdale they had to show me how to hug a girl, and now I’m in my underwear kissing another girl.”
“All the kisses are real,” Hodge added, explaining that the intimate black-box setting makes a fake kiss impossible.
Helping these three siblings trying to sort out their future and differences are cleaning lady Cassandra, played by Faith Liu, and a young aspiring actress, Nina.
“She’s an odd duck. She’s an immigrant who has these prophesy moments like her namesake,” Liu said.
Cassandra often bursts out with warnings that don’t even make sense to her, but eventually prove strangely clairvoyant.
Elyse Hutcheson plays Nina, who has been dying to meet the famous Masha and knows far more about theatre than most of the other characters.
“She’s very optimistic and always looking for the brighter side of everything,” Hutcheson said.
Although the play will push the boundaries of Hillsdale theatre, Hutcheson says its message is beautiful.
“Hillsdale students are going to hear about how ‘scandalous’ it is, but that’s not at all what it is about. The play is about dealing with changes, and I think, for a place like Hillsdale that’s a very safe bubble, the idea of having to leave that bubble and deal with the changes is very scary,” Liu added.
Gibbs said that the show is a chance to make people laugh.
“It’s not a scary in a voodoo way,” Gibbs said. “Change is what’s scary and having to deal with that past regret and what you would do over.”
During Vanya’s rant, he relives some of the many thing he loved and hated about the ’50s—most importantly, licking postage stamps.
“I am not a conservative,” Vanya announces, “but I do miss things in the past.”
The actors mentioned that faculty and staff will probably relate to the play best, but that students will definitely take something from the performance as well.
“This is easy to relate to: we all fight with our siblings,” Hodge said. “Then we come back to our roots and it’s funny.”
Anastasia added that if something offends audience members, they should just let it roll over them, and Gibbs said that, even though the show may be controversial, they haven’t removed all social morals.
“Just sit, relax. There is some swearing but that is the truth of the characters and real life. Realize this is what happens in the real world,” Dennehy said.
Pomerantz urged people wanting to attend the show to reserve seats early, since there are only about 50 per night.
