Shorts are sweet

>> Chekhov shines at the Saidye

by AMY BARRATT

Anton Chekhov's short stories are hilarious and heartbreaking studies of human nature. On second thought, it's not just human nature. In "Kashtanka," he paints an uncanny portrait of a little dog, a cat and a goose. Chekhov's wry humour and dead-on powers of observation are a perfect fit with the clown-inspired style of Toronto's Theatre Smith-Gilmour.

It is to this company that we owe the pleasure of Chekhov's Shorts, which recently opened at the Saidye. I must concede right off the top that no description of mine will do justice to this show. I strongly recommend that you go see it for yourself.

Chekhov's Shorts is not the kind of show English Montrealers get to see very often. It has more in common with francophone companies from Carbone 14 to Alexandre Marine's Théâtre Deuxième Réalité. As a matter of fact, this is the show I was hoping for and didn't get two weeks ago in Marine's Le Laquais. It's theatrical and innovative without being weighed down by its sense of itself as "art." Best of all, it's Chekhov. The company brilliantly captures the feel of the master's writing without having to resort to big dresses and gleaming samovars.

This production has no set beyond a curtain at the back of the stage, and props consist almost exclusively of suitcases, which are used to represent everything from an accordion to a coffin.

The story "On the Train" serves as a framework to contain four other stories, and four actors portray all of the characters, human and animal. All three women and one man are excellent, but for me, Michele Smith, who co-created both the company and the show with Dean Gilmour, is the stand-out. She notably portrays Belikov, the creepy little "man in a shell"; a teacher of ancient Greek, whose time is spent snitching on his co-workers. We don't often see male characters portrayed as cat-like, but Smith's Belikov is like a cat in heat who is trying to pretend she's not in heat.

Patricia Marceau portrays the object of Belikov's affection, the lusty Varenka. Marceau is also the teenage nanny in "Sleepyhead," whose dreams are perpetually interrupted by the crying of her infant charge. This piece brilliantly captures the confused, paranoid state of the sleep deprived. Marceau is also uncannily birdlike as Ivan Ivanitch, the goose.

Monica Dottor plays Kashtanka, the little dog who is mistreated by her owner until she gets lost one day and found by a much nicer man who makes her part of his circus act. Dean Gilmour brings it all together as narrator and as Yakov, the coffin-maker whose fretting about financial losses causes him to lose out on everything else in life as well.

The actors' energy is matched by a lively klezmer soundtrack. Chekhov's Shorts is stagecraft at its best.

Meanwhile, on the French side, Wajdi Mouawad's Six personnages en quête d'auteur is apparently a must-see at Théâtre de Quat'Sous. Pirandello's post-WWI classic has been set in present-day Quebec with a timely message from wunderkind Mouawad.

Théâtre de l'Opsis has a pretty good track record with Chekhov and the Russians. Their latest double bill at Espace GO features Howard Barker's adaptation of Uncle Vanya (directed by Serge Denoncourt) and Oleg Bogayev's La Poste populaire russe, directed by Luce Pelletier. Until Saturday.

Chekhov's Shorts, to Nov. 4 at the Saidye Bronfman Centre, $15-34, 739-7944