Colombe Demers stars in The Russian Play

What’s Love Got To Do With It?

The Russian Play a minimal masterpiece

Never had the time to read the likes of Anna Karenina? Go see Hannah Moscovitch's The Russian Play at the Belfry this week and save yourself the time. Just over 45 minutes long, The Russian Play offers audiences everything they'd expect from such a title—love (found and lost), winter, peasants, kulaks, prison, bread, bleak philosophizing—plus a whole lot of laughs. Yep, laughs . . . which is possibly the most surprising thing about Moscovitch's truly remarkable piece: just like life, it's often very funny.       

Granted, most of the laughs in this engaging piece of dramatized storytelling come from the central performance of Colombe Demers, whose multiple roles make up the bulk of the characters—including a droll Russian-accented Roseanne Roseannadanna-esque narrator who frequently breaks the fourth wall to address the audience directly ("I know what you're thinking: Why is play still going?"). But with the merest swirl of a shawl, Demers can downshift into a beautiful naive peasant or an equally believable old crone, all without ever once losing the attention of the audience at Tuesday night's packed preview performance.       

Indeed, the beauty of this show lies in such core simplicity—whether it's a shawl or a shaft of light, Halifax's 2b theatre company (last seen locally with the marvellous Revisited) and director Christian Barry easily maintain their reputation for minimalist masterpieces. Whereas last week's SPARK offering Tiny Apocalypse was more akin to the skewed complexity of a Frank Gehry building, The Russian Play offers an organic Frank Lloyd Wright approach—rather than marvelling at such an obvious effort, the audience is allowed to quietly discover the emotional framework within.

While a core strength of the piece is obviously Moscovitch's lean script and Demers' stellar performance, there is also fine supporting work here by Scott Stephenson and Conor Green, as well as Tessa Cameron's yearning on-stage violin (which doubles for sound effects throughout); true, their stage presence is relatively limited in comparison, but the supporting cast remain an important aspect of this production.

Like any fine piece of art, The Russian Play all seems so effortless: much like his direction here, Barry's lighting seems so basic, but is very effective—a colour spectrum of warm yellows and frosty blues, a grave that moves around the stage, the light spills through a prison-cell door—offering the audience impressions or emotional signatures that linger like a handprint on your heart.

With all the power of a Tolstoy novel packed into the average length of a television dramedy, The Russian Play succeeds in capturing—nay demanding—the audience's attention with practically no theatrical bells or whistles. Variously laugh-out-loud funny and so quietly engaging you can hear a heart break, don't miss your chance to experience this truly wonderful theatrical experience; it's the kind of show you'll remember for years to come.

The Russian Play
Part of the Belfry's SPARK Festival
8 pm Wednesday to Saturday, March 17 to 20
plus matinees at 4 pm  Saturday, March 20, and 2 pm Sunday, March 21
Tickets $10 to $20
250-385-6815
belfry.bc.ca