A Family Affair: Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike at the Provincetown Theater

I’m not going to bury the lede: this is a wonderful production of a brilliant play. Go see it, go see it, go see it!

Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike is an American farce written by masterful playwright Chistopher Durang that has, yes, some inane storylines and unreal characters and situations, but ultimately allows you the opportunity to leave your troubles outside the theater.

Vanya, a repressed gay man (an understated character portrayed with subtle grace by William Mullin), and his adopted sister Sonia (played to perfection by Jennifer Cabral) are having their morning coffee in the family home they still inhabit years after their parents’ deaths. Their sister, glamorous but fading movie star Masha (an incredible Susan Lambert who constantly shows just how versatile she is), arrives unexpectedly along with her boy-toy Spike (Jeff Brackett in a I-don’t-believe-how-stupid-he-is, in-your-face performance).

It turns out that the cleaning lady, a soothsayer, Cassandra (Hilarie Tamar is terrific), who takes her name very seriously indeed, has more than a few plot twists up her sleeve.

There is also a young girl visiting next door: Nina (played with naïve zest by Lena Moore) ends up joining the family on a crazy weekend that changes every character’s life. There is a succession of little scenes in which each character is allowed to get their past repressions off their chests. Mullin finally gets to spread his wings in the second act, in which he rants about the modern world versus the 1950s and all the great memories contained in those decades. The audience on opening night skewed a little past middle age, and there was much laughter in the room when he talked about the dial phone, the four-channel TV set in black and white, and white-out and typewriters.

Cabral, a familiar presence on this theater’s stage, is especially riotous once Sonia discovers her inner Maggie Smith and sails off to a costume party in a glittery gown (costumes by Thom Markee)—a transformation that upstages Masha, who isn’t best pleased. You could understand any plot just by watching Cabral’s face. Lambert, a polished performer, makes the audience feel sympathy—at least by the end of the play—for a woman who has realized all her life dreams but finds herself facing an uncertain future. As she allows her genuine persona to emerge from that of the stereotypical washed-up actress, the audience finds itself rooting for her.

And Brackett, forever in his underwear, is a hoot as Spike bounds, lunges, performs push-ups and generally shows off his body at every opportunity. (I won’t give away *his* character’s non-evolution, it’s too delightful for words.)

Chekov naturally features heavily—the family’s professor parents having named their offspring for characters in his plays—and at one point Sonia remarks that “if everyone took antidepressants, Chekov would have had nothing to write about.”

The set, designed by Jenni Baldwin, is perfection itself—physically, this is a house I’d be thrilled to live in, with flexible spaces and a lot of detail. And Stephen Petrilli’s lighting highlights moods subtly but effectively.

There is absolutely nothing to fault here. The writing is crisp and, under David Drake’s excellent direction, the actors make the most of it, with perfect comedic timing. Durang’s use of parody and his criticism of social institutions rings true for the world of 2025, and all of that makes this sometimes-dark comedy a delight to watch. It’s the best show I’ve seen this year so far, and possibly for several other years as well.

Again: go see it! You will laugh until you cry even as each character worms its way into your heart. We don’t award stars in this publication, but if we did, this would be a solid five.

review by Jeannette de Beauvoir

photos by Bob Tucker/Focalpoint