From left, Jeff Biehl, Michael Schantz and Stacey Linnartz in Aaron Posner’s “Life Sucks.”Russ Rowland
Austin Pendleton, left, and Nadia Bowers in the play Mr. Posner describes as “sort of adapted from ‘Uncle Vanya.’”Russ Rowland
From the NYT's review: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/01/theater/life-sucks-review.html
Mr. Posner has kept the original play’s basic architecture. The grump is Vanya (Jeff Biehl), and he still shares a home with the plain Sonia (Kimberly Chatterjee), but now we appear to be in the United States since there is talk of dollars and student loans. Both Vanya and the brooding Dr. Aster (formerly known as Astrov, portrayed by Michael Schantz) still pine for Sonia’s stepmother, Ella (the new name of Yelena, played by Nadia Bowers).
As ever, Sonia feels overlooked by everybody, including her secret crush, Aster, and her own father (Austin Pendleton, confirming once more his status as a New York stage treasure), an academic who specializes in semiotics. “That’s the study of … big trucks?” asks the daffy Pickles (Stacey Linnartz), an artist manqué nursing a broken heart and who appears to be loosely based on Chekhov’s Waffles. The only well-adjusted person is Babs (Barbara Kingsley), a potter.
The characters and basic plot will be familiar to “Uncle Vanya” fiends. But at the same time, “Life Sucks.” will be familiar to just about anybody. Chekhov’s play has transcended the centuries because it is about timeless concerns: how hard it is to communicate with others, the vagaries — and unfairness — of love, the idea that life is something you must simultaneously endure and make the most of. And underneath the fourth-wall-breaking jokes and contemporary references, Mr. Posner has preserved those elements. He understands full well that there is no date stamp on feeling stranded between regrets and hopes, between fancy dreams and the banality of existence.Cast
Jeff Biehl, Nadia Bowers, Kimberly Chatterjee, Barbara Kingsley, Stacey Linnartz, Austin Pendleton and Michael Schant
