Ivanov (Initiative Productions)

Tweet

Chekhov’s Ivanov, his earliest completed full-length play from 1887, used to be the step-child of his five major plays. And although there have been only two major English language productions in recent decades, the 1997 Lincoln Center revival with Kevin Kline in the David Hare translation and the 2012 Classic Stage Company version with Ethan Hawke in the Carol Rocamora translation, this year we have had two vigorous Off Broadway productions each attempting to revive interest in this seldom seen play.

Currently to be seen at the Lynn F. Angelson Theater, adaptor/director Laura Strausfeld has renamed her production The Real Ivanov, a streamlined version which “preserves almost every line and all of the major characters.” This riveting version performed without intermission reduces the three hour play (with breaks between the acts) to a fast 100 minutes in which the audience sits on all four sides of the playing area, putting us in the arena with Chekhov’s characters.

Much of this is due to Jiyoun Chang’s scenic design which uses one item in each of the four acts to set the stage for the different scenes allowing for instant transformations: a bench in Act I, a rug in Act II, a desk and chair for Act III, and a red carpet signifying a hallway for the wedding scene in Act IV. As we have gotten used to a great deal of realistic scenery in recent years, it is amazing how unnecessary it appears to be if the actors create the ambiance and the milieu.

The title change may refer to Strausfeld’s returning the play to a drama as Chekhov names this first play (as opposed to the later plays which he called comedies.) The most recent English language (there have been two Russian language version in 2012 and 2018) played the title role as a comic character, a tragic-comic buffoon always playacting as if for the crowd. Here the remarkable Sam Underwood dressed entirely in black (as contrasted with everyone else in summer whites or tans) plays Ivanov as a dark, brooding presence, seeming in mourning for his life as one of Chekhov’s later characters describes herself.

A “Hamlet in the Russian manner,” Ivanov is also the “superfluous man” as the Russians describe such protagonists as Gogol’s The Government Inspector, Lermontov’s A Hero of Our Time and Pushkin’s Eugene Onegin, men who cannot find their place in society but go around bringing unhappiness to all they encounter. A minor rural Russian bureaucratic, Nicholai Ivanov is bankrupt, bored and out of love with his wife of five years who without her knowledge is dying of tuberculosis. He suffers from depression, hopelessness and emotional distress. Except for his ailing wife Anna, all those around him party and make merry as they complain about trivial things while Ivanov broods about serious matters. However, Ivanov refuses to stay home with his wife and often goes to visit his neighbors the Lebedevs where there is usually a party going on and he can flirt with their beautiful 20-year-old daughter Sasha who is head over heels in love with him.

Strausfeld’s production which uses ten actors brilliantly creates an entire community around Ivanov, each one representing another type or profession. Sam Adegoke as Misha Borkin, a distant cousin of Ivanov and manager of his estate, is delightful as a con-artist with many fraudulent schemes which have given Ivanov a bad reputation. Jordan Lage is effusive as Ivanov’s dissipated uncle, Count Matvey Shabyelsky, who allows himself to be talked into marrying a rich widow and then seeming to back out of the contract at the last minute. As his ailing wife Anna who has converted from Judaism and subsequently lost her family and her dowry, Ivory Aquino is a lovely pale presence who finally finds her voice when she catches Ivanov kissing Sasha.

Elijah Guo makes her doctor Yevgeny Lvov, who is constantly telling us that he is “an honest man,” a disagreeable presence as he takes it as his duty to castigate Ivanov for his lack of love for his wife. Spencer Aste as his neighbor Pasha Lebedev, under the thumb of his insufferable wife Zinada, is a recognizable weakling who can’t stand on his own two feet. Sarah Long makes his wife Zinada, a money lender to whom Ivanov owes 9,000 rubles, into a miser who invites people to her home and then serves nothing all evening but tea with gooseberry jam with which her larder is stocked. As Sasha whom Ivanov is wooing even before his wife has died, Amelia Mason is a lovely performance of a young woman who thinks she can cure the melancholy Ivanov of his ills through love alone. Kimberlee Walker is the merry widow Marfusha Babakina, always laughing, who thinks she would like to be a countess though she must realize that Shabyelsky is only after her money. William DeMeritt is amusing as Kosyk, an excise officer, addicted to gambling which makes up all of his conversation.

The design team is totally in tune with the director’s approach. Chang’s lighting always focuses our attention center stage, often creating rooms and walls just by narrowing the light to a defined square. Ella Matza’s period costumes in mostly white, tan, grey and pale blue create a visual contrast between the black clad Ivanov and his community. Brandon Bulls’ original music makes lovely use of piano, violin and guitar between the scenes.

Laura Strausfeld’s well-thought-out production of Ivanov demonstrates that there is a great deal of life in what was once thought to be a minor Chekhov play. Played to the hilt this is an engrossing drama of abnormal psychology made real by its excellent cast led by Sam Underwood in the title role who uses a British accent to set himself off from the other characters who do not suffer from his complaint. Chekhov’s off-stage ending comes as little surprise after all that has gone before.

The Real Ivanov (through September 19, 2026)

Initiative Productions

Lynn Angelson Theater, 136 W. 13^th Street, in Manhattan

For tickets, visit http://www.realivanov.com

Running time: one hour and 50 minutes without an intermission