Bristol Riverside Theatre presents Christopher Durang’s Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike

The 2013 work proves an appropriate programming choice for the Bucks County venue. Durang—who died in 2024, at 75—was a longtime resident of nearby New Hope, and he set the play in these bucolic environs, which stand in for the rural dachas of Chekhov’s time. And although a working knowledge of the Russian master’s catalog certainly helps a viewer draw connections among the characters and their fraught personal connections, Durang engages themes bound to resonate with audiences of all backgrounds.

Sunlight in the clouds

Vanya (Alan Safier) and Sonia (Amanda Schoonover) share more than just their names with their Chekhovian counterparts. Like those analogs, who toil endlessly to maintain a barely functioning estate, they were left to care for their declining parents while their glamorous sister Masha (Angela Pierce) made her name as a movie star. When the prodigal daughter returns with her hunky boy toy in tow—the aforementioned Spike (Dante Giannetta)—lingering resentments come to a head.

Durang subscribes here to the idea that all great theatrical drama—and comedy, for that matter—comes back to the family. The siblings recriminate, point fingers, and drop bombshells (Masha wants to sell their ancestral home and wash her hands of Pennsylvania altogether), but the warmth of their bond remains evident even amid the fractious turmoil. As in many a great Russian play, the clouds hide streaks of sunlight.

Wintry warmth

Some critics have characterized Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike as Durang in winter mode, but his humanity has always been present, even in his most mordant works. Director Ken Kaissar may lean a bit more heavily into the script's warm moments and lighter comedy, but as the piece moves toward a life-affirming conclusion, his pacing hits the right notes and strikes the playwright’s delicate balance.

Kaissar is aided especially by Schoonover, whose edgy wit suits this playwright perfectly: She was superb in Betty’s Summer Vacation for Idiopathic Ridiculopathy Consortium in 2019 (here’s my review), and she’s even better here. Schoonover threads Masha’s emotional needle from bitter to hopeful, and she brought tears to my eyes in a tender scene where she opens herself up to a potential late-life romance—though not before almost sabotaging the prospect as a means of self-preservation. If I had one constructive observation, it’s that her impression of Dame Maggie Smith—a pivotal moment in the play, as the siblings prepare for a costume party—sounded more like Angela Lansbury.

Pierce nails Masha’s hauteur and her insecurities, and Cara Rose DiPietro is charming as Nina, the chirpy aspiring actress from next door. (Another Chekhov allusion—check!) Megan McDermott is a hoot as Cassandra, a thickly accented Irish housekeeper who, like her namesake, cannot help but dole out passionate predictions for the future. Woe to those who fail to heed her advice.

Safier captures Vanya’s self-sacrificing good nature, although he doesn’t quite communicate the character’s bone-deep sense of weariness at devoting the best years of his life to others. Durang gives the character a glorious second-act aria on the siren call of nostalgia and its pitfalls, and while Safier lands certain moments, he can’t quite sustain the rising temperature.

Flipping the script

As usual, Bristol Riverside supplies a handsome production, although the scenery by Jason Simms looks more like a ritzy resort lobby than a lived-in family home. Linda Bee Stockton’s costumes go far in defining character, and the scene changes are aided by Cameron Filepas’s ambient lighting. Appealing but unintrusive incidental music is provided by sound designer Damien Figueras, and although the actors are lightly amplified, their vocal production never sounds artificial.

In Chekhov, country life often means tragedy: the unfulfilled promise of The Three Sisters, the insurmountable melancholy of The Seagull. Here is where Durang flips the script. He shows that coming home can be a refuge as much as a defeat, that bonds of blood are a sanctuary rather than a shackle. Chekhov’s Masha may long for Moscow, but this fine production shows that healing begins at home.