Uncle Vanya has probably never made audiences laugh as loudly and as often as he and his fellow Chekhovians do in Aaron Posner’s Life Sucks, the Stupid F***ing Bird playwright’s contemporary take on a 124-year-old Russian classic, now getting a fabulous Interact Theatre Company Los Angeles Premiere at the Broadwater Mainstage.

As he did in his reworking of The Seagull, Posner sticks close to the Chekhov original in both cast of characters and “plot.” (I put that last word in quotation marks because you know, Chekhov.)

In other words, just as Uncle Vanya first did back in 1899, Life Sucks has us spending time with the titular Vanya and assorted friends and family at the country house of the elderly Professor Serebryakov, now referred to simply as The Professor (Steve Vinovich), a residence maintained during his extended absences by his unpretty 20something daughter Sonia (Olivia Castanho), his late wife’s feisty mother “Babs” (Anne Gee Byrd), originally called Mariya, and Sonia’s grouchy Uncle Vanya (John Ross Bowie).

Also along for the ride are handsome local doctor Astrov, sorry, make that Dr. Aster (Marc Valera); Pickles (Lily Raines), as quirky as the name Posner has given the housekeeper formerly known as Marina; and the Professor’s much younger third wife Yelena, name shortened to Ella here (Erin Pineda), but every bit as smart and seductive as her Russian namesake.

(Sorry “Waffles,” you didn’t make the cut.)

And just like Chekhov’s characters in the original Uncle Vanya, these folks do love to talk, though I defy anyone to fall asleep at their palaver the way I’m guessing more than a few have when it was Chekhov writing the script. (Sorry, Anton, but I may have been among them.)

No, indeedy, folks. With Posner in charge, the laughs come fast and furious from the moment the entire cast shows up to address us eye-to-eye in the play’s very meta prologue, Vanya informing us that if anyone in the audience isn’t interested in “love and longing and loss … and how fucked up the world is,” he, she, or they “can actually leave right now if you want and you’ll get a full refund for your ticket. Plus a dollar for your trouble.” Heck, he even suggests we check out what’s playing at the Geffen if Live Sucks doesn’t sound like our cup of tea.

(Trust me, even if you’re a confirmed coffee drinker, it will be yours.)

Indeed, it’s hard to think of another contemporary play with as richly and rewardingly developed characters as Life Sucks’ septet, roles that gives seven superb actors ample opportunities to shine bright in scene after scene under Barry Heins’ pitch-perfect direction.

With Bowie (of “Big Bang Theory” and “Speechless” fame) playing him to the hilt, you can almost see the dark cloud hanging above the misanthropic Vanya’s head, and never more so than in his hopeless pursuit of Pineda’s absolutely sensational Ella, as brainy as she is bodacious, and the object of not just one man’s (or woman’s) unrequited love/lust.

No wonder then that Valera’s terrific Dr. Aster (a charming klutz of man) is equally smitten, to the heartbreaking dismay of the absolutely wonderful Castanho’s doctor-adoring Plain Jane of a Sonia, whose “nice hair and eyes” are no match for Ella’s va-va-voom.

The always formidable Byrd makes it crystal clear that being “of a certain age” does not mean losing one’s sensuality, not where Babs is concerned; Vinovich plays a character self-described as a “slightly bloated, badly-aging Bill Maher” with poodles of verve; and Rains makes for the most adorable of ditzes as the bike-riding, Ella-worshiping Pickles.

Last but not least, Life Sucks looks and sounds as fabulous as it would on the Geffen mainstage with scenic designer Evan A. Bartoletti giving us the most inviting of country abodes, painstakingly appointed by props master Eric Babb and gorgeously lit by Carol Doehring, with Michael Mullen’s eye-catching costumes, projection designer Ly Eisenstein’s multi-fonted scene titles, and Joseph “Sloe” Slawinski’s atmospheric sound design completing a couldn’t-be-better production design, and guitarist Dylan Gorenberg and violinist Madison Leinster providing live, Woody Allen-esque musical accompaniment along the way.

Life Sucks is produced by Heins and Kristen Egermeier. Andrew Hill Newman understudies The Professor, Dr. Aster, and Vanya. Rains is intimacy consultant. Gina DeLuca is stage manager. David Elzer is publicist.

Having fallen hard for Aaron Posner’s Stupid F***ing Bird back in 2014, I figured that Life Sucks would be right up my alley, and I figured right. As entertaining and rewarding a production as you’re likely to see this fall, sucks is something Life Sucks most definitely does not.

The Broadwater Mainstage, 1076 Lillian Way., Hollywood.
www.InteractLA.org

–Steven Stanley
October 6, 2023
Photos: Jason Niedle

Tags: Aaron Posner, Anton Chekhov, InterACT Theatre Company, Los Angeles Theater Review, The Broadwater Mainstage