Love triangles, intense emotions and movement blend seamlessly in CSUN Department of Theatre’s latest production, “Platonov: An Unfinished Party” in the Little Theatre. The production ran from Oct. 7-10 and was adapted by Theatre Movement Bazaar from Anton Chekhov’s unfinished play, moving the setting to 1960s America.
“Platonov: An Unfinished Party,” directed and choreographed by Tina Kronis from Theatre Movement Bazaar, set the production amid the Cold War and followed a gathering of friends in the Peterson summer home on the East Coast. The play dealt with emotional conflict and tangled up in romance, with Michael Platonov, played by David Woods Jr., at the center of several complicated relationships. The production also combined the dialogue with dancing and music, while the set and costumes evoked the feeling of the ‘60s.
Kornis explained in the playbill how the adaptation removes or combines characters, has rewritten dialogue and condenses the action from Chekhov’s original play.
“Chekhov’s brilliantly drawn main characters are intact as well as their complex and compelling relations as friends, family, lovers and enemies,” said Kronis. “We have taken the original out of the late 1800s Russia where class structures were breaking down and dramatic change approaching, and set it in what we hope provides an appropriate American parallel.”
Although the production is infused with movement and singing, it is considered a straight play. All the elements would work alongside the dialogue to express the storytelling of the production.
William Flannery, a theatre arts major, played the character Seymour Peterson, who lives with his mother, Anna Peterson, played by Polina Sysoeva, and is married to his wife, Sofie, played by Jessica Pantaleon. Flannery described his character as a happy person who loves his wife, but is unaware of Sofie’s entanglement with Platonov.
Along with the dialogue, Flannery sang, played the guitar and danced on stage. Flannery described how his musical background and sense of rhythm helped him approach the production’s singing and dancing.
“I think what’s helped me with this is, I’ve kind of sung my whole life, so I’m already very comfortable singing and playing the guitar,” Flannery said. “I have that prior experience, and with dancing, I just have a good sense of rhythm. I’m definitely not a dancer, but I’m able to learn pretty simple choreography, so that wasn’t too hard.”
Flannery also spoke on the challenges he faced getting into the emotions of his character. Heartbroken over Sofie, Seymour begs and pleads with her to stay. So to connect with those emotions, Flannery sat down and wrote a short song as Seymour.
“I went up into one of the practice rooms here, and I was playing one of the pianos, and I ended up writing a song from the perspective of Seymour in that final act when he’s talking to Sophie, and that helped me emotionally connect more to the scene and really be more authentic with that,” Flannery said.
While Flannery used songwriting to connect with Seymour’s heartbreak, Liam Sacramento approached his character, Dr. Nicholas Triletsky, through their shared love of food and used that personal connection to portray his indulgent side.
“If he’s [Dr. Nicholas Triletsky] doing something, other people have to do it too,” Sacramento said. And I think, you know, just hyping myself up and trying my best to make myself believe that I’m that guy who just loves to pass out money. ‘Oh, I’m so generous, but am I really?’”
Sacramento described his character as a “man of passion, of thrust” who “loves to just have a good time.” Dr. Nicholas is a character who is not confrontational and likes doing whatever he wants. He reflected on his experience dancing onstage in the production and said he would also like to incorporate movement into a play if he were to direct one.
“I’ve always loved to dance and given that it isn’t crazy, like crazy dance numbers, like a musical would be, it was definitely refreshing to kind of just, you know, have some movement and you know get loose within our characters on stage, and not just, you know, standing there doing a scene,” Sacramento said. “It’s such a great way to express how a character’s feeling and what the vibe of a scene or an act is.”
The production challenged the actors to connect with their characters while bringing music and movement to the stage.
Although “Platonov: An Unfinished Party” has ended, the next production will be “Ghosts of Bogotá,” and is set to run from Oct. 12-24. Tickets can be purchased on the CSUN Theatre website.
