By Mike Hoban
“Mommy’s Dead and They Buried Her in Moscow” – Created by Nervous Theater Company; Directed by Connor Berkompas. Presented by Nervous Theater in a co-production with The Ellen Theater at the Ellen Theater in Bozeman, MT. Available for streaming now.
How do you transform The Three Sisters, Chekhov’s masterpiece of narcissistic despair, into an almost joyous experience? If you’re the Nervous Theater Company, you begin by removing nearly all of the characters except the three siblings from the stage and story (although a couple of their “romantic” interests are represented as disembodied voices offstage), add a handful of quasi-contemporary musical numbers, and throw theatrical conventions out the window. Mommy’s Dead and They Buried Her in Moscow is the second production by the company co-founded by Boston Conservatory alums Annabella Joy, Connor Berkompas and Sympathie the Clown, and with Mommy’s Dead, they deliver on their stated mission to produce “radically re-imagined classics”.
There’s plenty of evidence early on that this is not exactly going to be a period piece. After visiting their father’s grave (wearing overcoats and Jackie O mourning sunglasses) and tossing back a few shots of Stoli’s, the siblings assemble in front of individual microphones on the bare stage of the historic Ellen Theatre to kvetch before sister Masha declares, “Every day we’re stuck in this town, there’s one thought left in me that gets clearer and clearer…Get the fuck out of here and back to Moscow!” Which, of course, we know they never will.
Following the death of their father, the commander of the local garrison, the over-educated and profoundly bored women spend their time lamenting how awful their lives are, particularly living among the rubes in this military outpost town. There’s Irina (Annabella Joy), the youngest, who is convinced that if she only had a job, life would have meaning – until she does stints at the post office and City Hall and finds out that work is not as much fun as it sounds; Masha (Sympathie the Clown), who is grossly unhappy in her marriage after she comes to the realization that her husband, a teacher she fell for as a schoolgirl, is an intellectual lightweight; and Olya (Connor Berkompas, who also directed), the maternal older brother who works as a schoolteacher and provides emotional support (at least for Irina) and has his own brand of resigned unhappiness. Their lives seem to consist mostly of missing their Mom and Moscow and complaining about how much better life was when their father was alive, interspersed with demeaning the townspeople. As Irina bemoans at one point, “How I am alive, why I have not killed myself before now, I do not understand.” And neither can we.
Life begins to look up, at least for Masha, when an old family friend from Moscow appears at Irina’s birthday party. Although much older (like her husband) and married with children, Lieutenant Colonel Aleksandr Vershinin intrigues her, and it isn’t long before he and Masha are having an affair, meaning at least one of the siblings has found some joy in life, if only temporarily. Nick, a nice but boring guy in the army, has the hots for Irina and would like to marry her, but she may only do it to alleviate her boredom. If the subject matter sounds a little too depressing to sit through following one of the worst years in human history (hyperbole mine), fear not. Nervous Theater has infused the production with comic bursts as well as some clever music drops, ones which serve to advance the plot rather than merely distract from its dreary nature. The obvious choice is Mary Hopkin’s 60’s pop hit (adapted from an early 20th century Russian song), “Those Were the Days” which is reprised multiple times throughout the show, with the most notable version featuring Berkompas on accordion, Joy on melodica (mouth piano) and Sympathie on triangle, adding a nice comic touch.
Less predictable numbers include a mix of taped and live versions of the Righteous Brothers’ “Unchained Melody”, Annie Lennox’ “Little Bird”, Neal Young’s “Old Man”, Pink Floyd’s “The Great Gig in the Sky” (performed first on the piano by Joy and then as a music video sequence with her writhing on the floor in a nightgown as the vocalist screams like a madwoman), and the obscure but uplifting “Hello Sunshine” by Reverend Maceo Woods, sung by Sympathie with Joy and Berkompas performing backup vocalist/dancer duties.
The entire performance is a mix of live (mostly) and taped segments (usually the ones involving elaborate costume changes) and is performed on a mostly bare set in the gorgeous Ellen Theatre. There is a grand piano, a modular construction apartment box for a kitchen to chat and swill vodka in, and a neon sign with the word ‘MOSCOW’, but not much else. It’s the energy of the performers and the choice of the creative team to not be too deferential to a classic that makes this work so well. And at 75 minutes, it’s the shortest Russian play in history. As streaming/Zoom theater goes, it’s a creative treat that’s worth the price of admission (an absurdly low $10). See it. For tickets, additional info and a really cool trailer, go to: https://www.nervoustheatre.com/
