"Three Years"
adapted by Morton Paglin from the novella by Anton Chekhov
Tregoda Productions, Nov-Dec 2006
Photos courtesy of Rebecca J. Becker
Alexey Laptev was my first lead role in a Portland stage production. It was actually a shared lead -- the character of my wife, Julia Byelavin, played by Melissa Whitney, spent as much time on stage and was as central to the plot -- but Alexey appeared in every scene save one and certainly had the biggest line load of any role I had played up to then.
Laptev is a classic Chekhovian character: weak, prone to subordinating his will to that of others, yearning for something more, something better, but not quite certain what it might be. He's the son of a nouveau riche Moscow mercantile family who has vague intellectual ambitions (or pretensions), but is constantly belabored by a circle of family -- a sick sister and her freeloading husband, a mentally unstable brother, a pretty young wife from the country he worships but who does not love him -- all of whom depend on his largesse and resent him for it.
Retired Portland State University economics professor Morton Paglin adapted the play from a Chekhov novella, and director Keith Scales designed a spare but classy set, and rousted up a lovely array of costumes for us. I got to wear several silk cravats, as well as cutaways, tails, and a blue-and-white seersucker suit, which I referred to as my "Sheer Sucker" outfit. I had a couple of frantic costume changes, but not as hurried or elaborate -- I suspect -- as some of Melissa's.
In this production I got to act with several friends from past shows: Melissa, of course, I knew from the title role of Classic Greek Theatre's "Alcestis" the year before, and Jonah Weston, who played brother Fyodor in this show was in the Chorus of that show as well. (That's Jonah behind me in the photo at right.) Julia's father Dr. Byelavin was acted by Bob Projansky, with whom I had worked in "Macbeth" several months before, and "In the Matter of J. Robert Oppenheimer" earlier in the year.
I made the pleasing acquaintance of then-Oregon Public Broadcasting radio news announcer Alison Frost, who played Alexey's old flame, Polina Nikolaevna; as well as Ben Plont and Joe Healey, who traded off playing the sponging, philandering brother-in-law, Grigory Panaurov. The cast was rounded out by Ken Moore as Laptev's colleague and mentor Yartzev (Ken would join me in "Arcadia" the following spring), and Laptev's dying sister Nina, played by Maryanne Glazebrook.
WHAT THEY SAID
"...Paglin's new play, 'Three Years,' an adaptation of Anton Chekhov's novella of the same name, is exquisitely elegant theater, pure and burnished gold." -- Paul Haist, "Theater Beyond Cornflakes," The Jewish Review, Nov. 15, 2006
"Fine efforts by Scales and his designer are hindered by unpolished (though eager) acting and Paglin's stilted, plodding script. Still, even an economist can't stifle Chekhov's twisted sense of humor, and a minor appearance by Ben Plont (Second-Hand Smoke) as a smarmy charlatan saves the show from total banality." -- Ben Waterhouse, Willamette Week, Nov. 15, 2006
"The production drags a little at first, but soon picks up as the story of typical disoriented Chekhovian characters gently unravels, in this case, the wealthy man who marries the woman he loves, only to be unhappy because she doesn't really love him. All that Russian passion, laced with humor culled from the human condition, comes to live in good time, though, and by the play's end, we want to learn even more about everybody." -- Holly Johnson, the Oregonian, Nov. 13, 2006