Review: Turgenev's A MONTH IN THE COUNTRY Receives an Engaging CSC Production

Long before Anton Chekhov made the boredom of country living all the rage in Russian theatres, Ivan Turgenev found humor in this peculiarity of highbrow society with A Month In The Country, a comedy of manners about gentlemen in love who politely do the honorable thing and the women they frustrate to no end.

It's an amusing play, though not without its clunky moments, but director Erica Schmidt's engaging and very well acted production of John Christopher Jones' fine translation for Classic Stage Company offers an evening of gentle humor, restrained passion and considerable charms.

Crisp and clever Taylor Schilling gracefully occupies the evening's center as Natalya Petrovna, the wife of an earnest and wealthy dullard, Arkady (Anthony Edwards). Her breaks from the boredom of living on his estate are supplied by the intellectually stimulating Mikhail (Peter Dinklage), who she adores as a friend. Dinklage brings out Mikhail's attractive wit as well as a self-effacing bitterness as he fights against his passion for a married woman.

Natalya's attraction for her young son Koyla's (a very good Ian Etheridge) handsome 21-year-old tutor, Aleksey (Mike Faist), is probably just a way to make sure her 17-year-old ward, Vera (Megan West), understands who the more desirable woman in the household is, and she arranges for the girl to be courted by the timid and much older Bolshintsov (a sweet and hopeful Peter Appel).

West is especially good when realizing she has a rival for Aleksey's affection and, for the first time, bares her claws, determined to fight for her man.

Thomas Jay Ryan provides the evening's comical highlights as Shpigelsky, a likeable, but inept doctor who is fully aware of his failings. The play's best scene has Shpigelsky proposing to the lonely Lizaveta (a quietly luminous Annabella Sciorra) by first warning her of all his shortcomings. ("I'm a lousy physician. Should you ever fall ill when we are together, I am not going to be the one who treats you.")

Mark Wendland's fascinating impressionistic set and Tom Broecker's elegant period costumes provide flattering visuals for this wonderfully satisfying production.

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