Review - The Sneeze: Get Out Your Handkerchiefs

It's always a good sign when you walk into a theatre for a comedy and right away the set is making you laugh. Such was the case for me with the playful space Jo Winiarski created for the Pearl Theatre Company's uproariously funny mounting of The Sneeze, Michael Frayn's vaudevillian octet of comedies adapted from early Chekhov one-acts and short stories.

Winiarski's antiquated provincial Russian theatre provides a cozy setting, but what really tickled me was the way the warped planks of wood making up the stage curled up at the downstage edge, revealing a red paint job of the candy apple variety.

Director J.R. Sullivan keeps the proceedings fast, loud and funny (save for one softer piece that helps set up the rousing finish) and a talented ensemble jumps in with zest and fury.

The zestiest (and funniest) of the bunch is Chris Mixon, who feasts on the evening's choicer roles, playing contrasting characters with top-notch comical timing and pathos. In the title piece, he's a low-level government official who, one unfortunate night, accidentally sneezes on a higher-up sitting in front of him (Bradford Cover) at the ballet. Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake provides the soundtrack to their pantomime, as Mixon desperately tries to smooth out The Situation, only to keep making it worse. Earlier, he appears as a successful writer, driven to exasperation when his peaceful afternoon is interrupted by an enthusiastic but untalented scribe (a very funny Rachel Botchan) who insists on reading him her entire five-act drivel.

Botchan and Mixon team up again, with hilarious results, for The Proposal, perhaps the best-known episode of the evening, as a sickly gentleman whose attempts to ask for his neighbor's daughter's hand in marriage keep getting disrupted by their petty (and heated) arguments, but the program's highlight has Mixon appearing as a lecturer suffering from various nervous ticks and annoyances (including a lengthy succession of sneezes that drew delighted applause when I attended) as he tries keeping his dignity while giving a talk on the evils of tobacco.

Lee Stark and Bradford Cover build up sexual heat under the tension of The Bear, as a widow who cannot pay her husband's debt to a struggling landowner until the day after his lack of funds will force him into bankruptcy, and Robert Hock is very touching as an elderly actor reflecting on his career after having too much to drink at his farewell party.

Music and dance quickly segues the company from playlet to playlet, giving The Sneeze an atmosphere that's continually festive and fun.

Photos by Gregory Costanzo: Top: (above) Edward Seamon, Dominic Cuskern and Robert Hock (center) Lee Stark and Chris Mixon (below) Rachel Botchan and Bradford Cover; Bottom: Lee Stark and Bradford Cover.

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