In the first short play contained within “Three Farces and a Funeral,” a hypochondriac goes to propose to his neighbor, gets in a terrific property dispute with his belle-to-be and her father, and declares that he is not merely feeling badly, but dying.
In the second, “the next guy says ‘You know, I don’t know how to treat a woman. I’ve been engaged 21 times,’” says Dan Halperin, the director of theatre at Noble and Greenough School. “It’s not like three, or five, or something that’s a lot but believable.”
That character, who has come to claim a debt from a widow, challenges her to a duel – before deciding he loves the “red-hot pistol-packing mama.”
The writer of these vaudevilles?
Anton Chekhov – the Russian playwright better known for the dour misery of “The Seagull.”
“Chekhov was having a good time when he wrote these,” Halperin says of “The Marriage Proposal,” “The Bear,” and “The Wedding Party.” In “Three Farces and a Funeral” – the Nobles Theatre Collective’s fall production, being performed this week – playwright Robert Brustein interweaves the comedies with dialogue between Chekhov and his actress and eventual wife, Olga Knipper.
| If you go What: The Nobles Theatre Collective’s production of Robert Brustein’s “Three Farces and a Funeral” When: Thursday, Nov. 12 and Friday, Nov. 13 at 6:30 p.m., and Saturday, Nov. 14 at 5 p.m. Where: The Vinik Theatre, Noble and Greenough School, 10 Campus Drive Tickets: $5. Available at www.nobles.edu, or in the Arts Center lobby one hour before showtime. |
“He’s known for stuff that either is or comes across as much more serious,” Halperin continues. “And this was a chance for us to do Chekhov, but for it to be light and fun and more accessible for our students and for our audiences. I’m going to die a slow and painful death, along with everyone else, I think, if we do ‘The Three Sisters.’”
Nobles senior Phillip Cohen of Dedham stars as Chekhov, with junior Haley DeLuca playing Olga; they appear together in scenes based largely on love letters between the two.
Cohen says he has never portrayed “a historical figure like Anton Chekhov before, which was a pretty cool experience, because everybody has a pretense of what they’re seeing when they walk in expecting Anton Chekhov, so you have to live up to that.”
“It was less me trying to fit what my perception of Anton Chekhov was than what it seemed like Brustein was trying to portray him as. So I just tried to imagine what it would be like to be this middle-aged man who’s writing these misunderstood plays and who’s suffering from a disease that he doesn’t want his wife to worry about, but at the same time he wants her to be close to him,” says the 17-year-old Greenlodge resident, who has been involved in theatre at Nobles since his freshman year.
Work began in mid-September on the show, which has a cast of 15. A 73-minute run-through last Monday had a few kinks – the actor playing the hypochondriac was absent, so a stand-in read off a script – but Halperin said the company was ready for their first performance.
Adding to the excitement of the opening was an appearance by Brustein – the founding director of the Yale Repertory Theatre and the American Repertory Theater – who was set to meet with the Nobles cast and crew for an hour Wednesday afternoon, watch the show that evening, and take questions from the audience afterward.
“Any time you have the chance to connect with the playwright, it just adds, I think, a great deal to the experience of everyone working on the show, and for some audience members as well,” Halperin says.
Dedham Transcript staff writer Edward B. Colby can be reached at 781-433-8336 or ecolby@cnc.com.
