Broadway Review: The Country House

A Tip of the Hat to Chekhov While Creating a Family Drama All Its Own

By Lauren Yarger
All the world’s a stage and by the number of productions of his works or productions owing their inspiration to his works one would think drama could not take place without Anton Chekhov. Donald Margulies’ newest play, The Country House getting a Broadway run by Manhattan Theatre Club, tips its hat to The Seagull and Uncle Vanya, but happily focuses on the roles people play in the drama unfolding on life’s stage rather than on trying to pay homage to the Russian classics.

Scenic Designer John Lee Beatty sets the stage with a comfortable-looking, gable-roofed family cottage in the Berkshires. Its location has been convenient for the family of actors and theater types who stay there while working at the Williamstown festival. But that is the end of convenient and comfortable for this family.

The gathering this season is bittersweet as it marks the one-year anniversary of the passing of popular Kathy, who in many ways held the family together.

Matriarch and Queen of the Theater Anna Patterson (Blythe Danner) agrees to let her director/ son-in-law, Walter (David Rasche), bring his new and much-younger actress fiancee Nell (Kate Jennings Grant) to the house, a decision that is not popular with granddaughter, Susie (Sarah Steele) who still misses her mom or unemployed actor/son, Elliot (Eric Lange) who hasn’t gotten over the loss of his sister and best friend. Not only is Nell seen as a too-soon replacement for the beloved Kathy, but the family can’t figure out why such a beauty would want to be saddled with an aging guy facing knee-replacement surgery, unless of course, she is just after his money or a starring role in one of his films…

Also causing angst is Anna’s decision to invite old friend Michael Astor (Daniel Sunjata) to stay at the house during his Williamstown engagement since his own house is being fumigated. Astor and Kathy had been lovers and Susie, who has been following the very successful career of the dashingly good-looking, old family friend, lets him know that she is interested in pursuing some of the other action the actor is famous for  -- in bed.  Meanwhile, Anna lets Michael know that he is welcome in her bed if he gets tired of sleeping on the couch in the living room. . . To the sexual frustration of Grandmother and Granddaughter, however, Michael’s eye roams toward Nell.

When pathetic loser Elliot announces that he has written a play and wants the family to do a reading of it, the tension really ratchets up a few notches leading to revelations about Elliot’s feelings of playing understudy to Kathy in his mother’s affections all his life. In fact, all of the family members explore the roles they play with each other. Could any of them even be nominated for an “Unconditional Love” Tony?

Standing out on the performance side in this production are Steele (“Spanglish”), who plays the self-confident, blunt-speaking Susie with a fierceness that rips off the drama masks being worn by her family members and Lange (“The Bridge,” “Weeds,” “Lost”), who delivers sarcastic lines of rapier wit with a fine-edged sword. The humor is a defense for a very depressed guy behind the tragedy mask and Lange expertly shows us the complexities of a character who just wants to be loved.

Danner, much like the grand dame she portrays, delivers a layered performance with a touch of elegance, and Daniel Sullivan aptly directs solid performances from the rest of the ensemble: We understand Walter, feel for Nell and discover shallowness under Michael’s “Hollywood-star-but-I’m-a-Humanitarian” charity work to build schools in the Congo.

While the plot developments are fairly predictable (though there is one surprise, delightfully revealed by Lighting Director Peter Kaczorowski ), Pulitzer-prize winner Margulies (Dinner With Friends) delivers a family drama all its own in this homage to Chekhov.

The Country House plays through Dec. 9 at  Samuel J. Friedman Theatre, 261 West 47th St., NYC.  http://www.manhattantheatreclub.org/