Zachary Desmond is Ivanov and Maya Shoham as Sasha in the New American Ensemble’s production of Chekhov’s early play Ivanov at the West End Theater in the Church of St. Peter and St. Paul.
A few playgoers in fin de siècle Moscow may have spotted flecks of genius in Ivanov, Anton Chekhov’s early mix of farce, melodrama, and slapdash tragedy. Initially unsuccessful, this play is now revived from time to time, often in adaptations by contemporary playwrights with high name recognition, such as Tom Stoppard. It’s unlikely anyone in 1887, when the play premiered, imagined that the country physician who wrote Ivanov might cap his career, 16 years later, with a work—The Cherry Orchard, of course—so compassionate and original that it would be a benchmark for dramatic storytelling over the next century.
Under surehanded direction by Michael DeFilippis, a band of seasoned actors, varied in age, is currently enlivening an intimate Upper West Side playhouse with its interpretation, at once melancholy and jubilant, of Chekhov’s journeyman play. These performers—the New American Ensemble (NAE)—have spent many post-pandemic months building a close-knit company in the spirit of Russia’s Maly Drama Theater. The Maly is renowned for its long, immersive rehearsal process, which yields intricate characterization and psychological veracity. Viewing the aesthetic teamwork of the NAE’s actors, canny spectators may spot seeds of The Cherry Orchard, Three Sisters, Uncle Vanya, and The Seagull in this faulty but engrossing play.
Set in central Russia in the late 19th century, Ivanov depicts the social life of leading citizens in a provincial town. The title character, Nikolai Ivanov (Zachary Desmond), is an educated landowner who serves on the County Council, leaving management of his farmland to a shiftless, self-dealing cousin, Misha Borkin (Mike Labbadia). Indifferent to job, farm, and homelife, Nikolai is consumed by existential angst. “[M]y mind is a mess; there’s a lethargy in my soul,” whines this Hamlet-esque but largely unreflective antihero. “I don’t understand other people. I don’t understand myself.”
Nikolai is married to the former Sarah Abramson (Quinn Jackson), who relinquished her Jewish faith to wed a Christian, changing her given name to Anna (presumably for its perceived Christian ring). Anna has been disinherited by her religiously observant parents (a matter of heartbreak to her and of scandal in the gossipy small town). She’s also tubercular, with a dire prognosis from the local doctor, Lvov (Lambert Tamin). Her physical woes are exacerbated by the unloving attitude of the husband she still adores but whom she suspects of disloyalty.
Nikolai spends much of his free time at the home of Pavel and Zinaida Lebedev, to whom he owes a large sum he can’t repay. At the Lebedevs’, where booze, melodrama, and farce abound, Chekhov displays the conflicts, social strains, and catastrophes of Nikolai and his neighbors. Zinaida (Mary Bacon) is a mean-spirited moneylender, torturing Nikolai with demands that he speedily repay the debt or extend it by remitting the outstanding interest. Pavel, as president of the County Council, is Nikolai’s boss and ostensible friend, but he’s too pusillanimous to deflect Zinaida’s nastiness. The Lebedevs’ 20-year-old daughter, Sasha (Maya Shoham), is in love with Nikolai, biding her time, waiting for Anna to die.
A handful of other actors engage in shenanigans, alternately comic and enraged, filling out the picture of provincial life. Count Shabelsky (Ilia Volok), an uncle of Ivanov’s, is a feckless aristocrat, freeloading on the hospitality of Nikolai and the Lebedevs. Martha Babakina (Alexandra Pearl) is a vulgar widow so desperate for social advancement that she’s eager to ensnare Shabelsky, despite his age and unsavory qualities. Avdotya (Maude Mitchell), a meddling old lady, and Ksoykh (Casey Worthington), a tax clerk, are cardplaying buttinskies who appear whenever the Lebedevs open their doors to company.
Scenic designer Ashley Basile has imposed a certain charm on the dowdy West End Theater, located in the United Methodist Church of St. Paul and St. Andrew. Sarah Woods’ lighting design lends a sepia quality to all the scenes, no matter the time of day depicted. That tone is consistent with the beginning and end of the production, which feature tableaux vivants, like antique photographs, with all the actors arranged in poses suitable to their respective characters and visages fixed in appropriate attitudes.
DeFilippis has chosen a gritty, colorful translation by the late Paul Schmidt, an American scholar, actor, and playwright who, in the 1990s, aimed to recreate “in American English a voice that resounds within the American language the way Chekhov’s voice resounds within Russian.” Listening to the company’s deft handling of Chekhov’s dialogue (as rendered by Schmidt), it’s tempting to visualize the potential fireworks when these actors take on more distinguished classics, such as Chekhov’s four major plays.
Anton Chekhov’s Ivanov, presented by New American Ensemble., plays through April 5 at the West End Theater (263 W. 86th St.). Evening performances are 7 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, and 7:30 p.m. Saturday; matinees are 2 p.m. Saturday and 5 p.m. Sunday. For tickets and information, visit newamericanensemble.org.
Playwright: Anton Chekhov
Translator: Paul Schmidt
Director: Michael Defilippis
Set Designer: Ashley Basile
Costume Designer: Adeline Santello
Lighting Designer: Sarah Woods
Sound Designer: Stan Mathabane
Alexandra Pearl plays Martha, Mike Labbadia is Borkin, and Mary Bacon is Zinaida in Ivanov.
Paul Niebanck is Lebedev, Maude Mitchell plays Avdoyya, and Ilia Volok is Count Shabelsky in Chekhov’s rarely staged play.
Lambert Tamin plays Dr. Lvov, with Anna (Quinn Jackson), in Ivanov. Photographs by Bronwen Sharp.
