Deep Dish double-header delivers double dose of fine acting

Deep Dish Theater Company begins its 15th season with its first double-header: Anton Chekhov’s 1904 classic, “The Cherry Orchard,” and John Patrick Shanley’s 2014 Broadway play, “Outside Mullingar.” These strongly acted and directed shows demonstrate the company’s maturity and depth of resources.

In “The Cherry Orchard,” a Russian estate must be auctioned to pay debts accumulated by widowed Liubov, the spendthrift owner. Yermolai, a local businessman, offers a plan to cut down the family’s beloved cherry orchard to put in lucrative summer cottages. Liubov rejects the idea but her children, servants and friends try to make her face reality, while they privately worry over their own futures.

Director Paul Frellick sensitively balances comic and tragic, exposing the human comedy while encouraging sympathy for the characters’ dilemmas. He smoothly choreographs the 14 actors around the small stage, never letting the pace drag.

Dorothy Recasner Brown’s Liubov lives in her own world, fragile and deluded yet still charming. John Rogers Harris energizes all his scenes as Yermolai, outwardly jolly and beaming but calculating and resentful underneath.

Among the many fine other actors, David Hudson makes Leonid, Liubov’s brother, a despicable sponger; Rebekah Vaisey a troubled Varya, Liubov’s adopted daughter in love with Yermolai; and Kevin Poole a fiercely radical Petya, the graduate student who protests he’s not in love with Liubov’s daughter (a sweet Maryanne Henderson). Lexie Braverman’s volatile maid Dunyasha and Holmes Morrison’s long-suffering butler Firs add amusing touches.

Set in present-day Ireland, “Outside Mullingar” charts the bumpy path to love taken by Anthony, son of Tony, and Rosemary, daughter of Aoife. Tony and Aoife, aging and spouseless, contemplate their farms’ futures.

Rosemary will get Aoife’s land but Tony thinks Anthony doesn’t like farming and wants him to be married. Anthony does love the farm but as a retreat from relationships. The two parents envision Anthony and Rosemary joining hands and farms but Rosemary professes an intense dislike for Tony.

Shanley’s script is quirkily charming, despite some ramblings and choppy scenes. Director Tony Lea nudges the lengthy one-act along but lets the awkwardness of the young couple’s amorous skirmishes play out unrushed.

Tom Marriott is a natural for Tony’s genial crotchets and tugs the heartstrings in the father-son scene. Nan Stephenson’s projection and comic timing as Aoife are admirable and effective.

Chris Milner astutely mines Anthony’s mixed emotions for all their nuances, although he sometimes over-physicalizes them. Rebecca Bossen’s Rosemary is delightfully feisty and ultimately moving, the long final scene with Milner an extremely gratifying end to this quietly endearing tale.

Rob Hamilton’s silvery, drawing-like setting for “Orchard” is cleverly re-worked for “Mullingar.” Deb Cox’s “Orchard” costumes give a real feel for the period and Doug Wood’s subtle lighting enriches both shows.

This story was originally published October 12, 2015 at 4:53 PM with the headline "Deep Dish double-header delivers double dose of fine acting."