“Kremlin Komedy”
Theatre 810
April 25-27 & May 2-3
Life is a brutal journey that ends in the hands of death. Hilarious, no?
That’s the whispered truth at the heart of “Kremlin Komedy,” a clever and very funny program of one-act plays by Russian absurdist writer Daniil Kharms and American playwright David Ives. As conceived by Nathan Gabriel, and directed by Gabriel, Andre Trahan, Alicia Chaisson and Travis Johnson, “Kremlin Komedy” delivers its quick and furiously funny bursts of savage comedy as a sort of dark vaudeville -- set against a simple but evocative curtain designed by Johnson -- that begins with a wait for an oncoming train and ends, as everything does, with a visit from Death.
The bill is almost entirely dedicated to the work of Kharms, and the pieces are real discoveries. The opening piece, “Mashkin Killed Koshkin,” a wordless interlude between two men waiting for a train that devolves into murder (delightfully played by Dustin Lafleur and Bryce Romero), plays like “The Zoo Story” for two Russian clowns. “Fedya Davidovich (Parts I and II)” takes an outrageous bit of physical comedy and turns it into a sharp comment on desperation in poverty. “Rehabilitation,” the blackest of the comedy on the bill, finds gruesome laughs in a most despicable character. And “Untitled,” performed by Rachel Chambers, needs only two sentences to do what Jonathan Swift did in “A Modest Proposal” and bring down the house while doing it.
Gabriel and Alicia Chaisson, who direct the lion’s share of the Kharms’ pieces, find great moments of physical comedy to balance the darkness of the scenes, and they work like gangbusters. They are supported by some very capable performers, particularly Aren Chaisson (whose mostly wordless opening for “What They Sell In Stores Nowadays” is priceless) and Cris Matochi (who gamely turns the audience against him in “Rehabilitation”). The show’s real standout is Bryce Romero, who displays a real knack for physical comedy and lands some of the evening’s best laughs. He shines brightly in “Mashkin Killed Koshkin” and finds some lovely grace notes in the final moments of “Pakin and Rakukin,” mostly without saying a word.
“Variations on the Death of Trotsky,” a one-act by American playwright David Ives, fits less comfortably into this bill. The one-act, which plays out a series of increasingly silly variations on the final day of Leon Trotsky (who lived almost twenty -four hours after having a mountain climber’s axe smashed into his skull), feels a little too long, too labored and too earnest next to the short ferocious bursts of Kharms’ work. Nancy Ramirez has a few bright moments as Trotsky’s long-suffering wife, but the show’s trio of actors never quite settle on a single tone, and the piece ends up feeling as though it belongs in a different show.
The best comedy comes from dark places, and “Kremlin Komedy” mines that darkness well. Gabriel and company never shy away from the dark, so their show about the hell of life is, seriously, funny as hell.
---Cody Daigle
