By Sandy Yang
Daily Bruin Staff
No matter the time period, themes in human comedies and
tragedies just don’t change.
Pasadena Playhouse’s “The Good Doctor” reminds
audiences that this is true through themes like money, love and art
in a collection of 10 stories set in 19th-century Russia.
“The Good Doctor” works like a collection of short
stories translated into mini-plays. Originally written by
19th-century Russian playwright Anton Chekhov and adapted by
American playwright Neil Simon, these narrative sketches are
churned from the minds of two accomplished writers from two
different centuries.
The five-member cast playfully performs a combination of
screwball comedy, witty banter, ballads, self-mocking confession
and character studies by donning different characters at a rapid
pace.
Many stories deal with different classes of people. Money may be
counted in rubles and kopeks instead of dollars and cents, but it
still determines who is rich and who is poor.
One story, for instance, tells of a lower-class man (Time
Winters) who accidentally sneezes on his boss (Raye Birk). The faux
pas is so awful, the memory rages in his mind, torturing him so
much he begins to realize how wrong it is that he should be the
server and his boss the served.
Similarly, in the wacky comedy “A Defenseless
Creature,” a lower-class woman (Michael Learned) must
retrieve money that is owed to her husband. But she is not about to
pull on heartstrings to get handouts, and she just will not give up
until she gets her money.
The comedy continues with Chekhov (Harry Groener), who recalls
his youth and his father’s special 19th birthday present:
Manhood. It is the memory of his thrifty father who bargains with a
prostitute before telling her to be gentle with his son. Balanced
masterfully with absurdity, the situation also recounts the
father’s sadness at watching his son become a man.
Character studies include an eager actress (Marita Geraghty) who
only wants one chance to prove herself and makes an audition she
has lovingly labored for. Another character study focuses on a
homeless man (Birk) who pretends to drown for people’s
entertainment and money.
The actors create over-the-top characters which make the stories
a lot of fun. But the characters and circumstances can seem so
extreme that it is easy to forget that you may be seeing some of
yourself on stage, repeatedly reliving an embarrassing moment or
saying the wrong thing to an admired person.
There is also Chekhov himself (played by Groener), who seems to
be the only sane being. However, he introduces his stories in a
quite contradictory manner, telling the audience that the writing
tortured him and condemned him to a solitary life, but that he
wrote anyway because to him it was indispensable.
So here are his stories, seemingly without connection. Most of
the stories feature characters who just want someone to listen to
them because they fear they are not worthy enough to merit
attention. They are determined to be heard even if they have to
beat the door down and choke the person they should look up to,
like the enraged woman in “A Defenseless Creature.” It
is not a realistic suggestion, but one can say it is a metaphoric
wake-up call to people who feel they have been forgotten or beaten
down for too long.
“The Good Doctor” is human nature mocked and
celebrated in all its idiosyncrasies, and demonstrates that
absurdity is not always practiced out of choice, but out of
necessity.
THEATER: “The Good Doctor” plays through August 20
at the Pasadena Playhouse. Tickets are $15-$42.50 and are available
by calling 1-800-233-3123. For more information, log on to www.pasadenaplayhouse.org.