WTF Experiments With 'A Month In The Country'
 Director Richard Nelson, center, poses with cast members from 'A Month in the Country' Charlotte Bydwell, Jeremy Strong, Jessica Collins, Julian Cihi and Louis Cancelmi. |
"The first four rows of seating will be removed to provide a 14-foot deep 16-foot wide space that will bring the stage closer to the audience," said director Richard Nelson at a press preview Friday.
Also for the first time, 20 to 30 microphones will hang 8 to 10 feet above the stage.
"Our extraordinary actors can project their voices, but we want them to be able to speak normally to allow the audience to feel they are in the room with them, overhearing intimate conversations," the director said as he motioned to the actors participating in the press preview: Louis Cancelmi, Jessica Collins, Jeremy Strong, Julian Cihi and Charlotte Bydwell.
The WTF production of Ivan Turgenev's "A Month in the Country" is the world premiere of the translation by Richard Nelson and foremost translators of Russian literature Richard Pevears and Larissa Volokhonsky. It is the first time the three collaborated on a translation.
"I felt that other translations were difficult to act. It has been misunderstood as about a woman in her 50s having a mid-life crisis, but Turgenev wrote about a 29-year-old woman who is going to turn 30 in a week," said Nelson.
In the current WTF production, all the major characters are young.
"'A Month in the Country' is very much a classic play in the tradition of WTF and we have produced it before," artistic director Jenny Gersten said, adding, "But when I read Richard's translation, it was breathtaking."
Although the play has sometimes been described as a romantic-comedy, Nelson pointed out that it is really a dark play — a psychological drama about love and the complexities and confusions of desire.
Audiences should not expect the grand settings they associate with WTF. "There will [just about] be no sets," said the director. In some scenes, only a bench or chair will be in the playing space. When actors are not in a scene, they sit on chairs on the very edge of the playing area.
 The set will bring the characters into the audience at the '62 Theatre's Main Stage. |
Some of the actors said they find the changes challenging. Cancelmi, who also had a role in "The Importance of Being Earnest," is especially aware of how differently the two plays are configured.
"'The Importance of being Ernest' is more stylish," he said. "At the same time, trying to do what is truth in the context of a play is a constant."
Strong feels the current production of "A Month in the Country" makes the actors vulnerable.
"It's kind of an X-ray," he said. "You have nothing to rely on except the journey with another individual. To keep it truly alive is going to be the real challenge for us."
Referring to an almost bare playing space, Collins said, "You have nothing to hide behind. ... It's so much about how you are feeling. In a way, that's very freeing."
Another member of the cast brings a first to the show. For 10-year-old Parker Bell-Devaney of Lee, it will be his first appearance in a professional play.
In a telephone interview, the youngster said he had been in school plays and "A Winter's Tale" with Shakespeare & Company.
He was given the role of Kolya, the son of the characters Natalya and her husband, Arkady, enacted by Jessica Collins and Louis Cancelmi, a couple of days after he auditioned.
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Parker Bell-Devaney of Lee, top, plays young Kolya with Julian Cihi, left, as tutor Belyaev, whose arrival sparks a love triangle. |
"[Cihi] who plays the part of my tutor (Belyaev) is very nice to me. We play and talk when we are not doing lines," said the young novice.
Cihi explained that "Richard cleverly seated Parker next to me in the seating area where we observe other actors in the playing space. We play with our props (bow and arrow, kite, ball of strong). We often whisper to each other anything silly and worth a giggle. I do find it amusing that Parker drinks coffee almost on a daily basis.
"Parker's playful, restless energy teaches me every day what a 10-year-old kid's fresh and innocent outlook on life is like. It's wonderful! His bright presence relieves some of the gravity shared by the adult characters."
Cihi is living with Equity actors, sharing a house on campus. "I find it interesting," he said, that we actually get to spend a month together in the Berkshires, surrounded by natural beauty. I climb trees, chase squirrels, swim in waterholes, sing by the creek - as my character Belyaev does in the play."
"A Month in the Country" will be performed on the Main Stage from Aug. 1 to 19. To purchase tickets: www.wtfestival.org, 413-597-3040 or at the box office at the '62 Center, 1000 Main St.
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