NJT Presents Contemporary Riff On UNCLE VANYA

This seems to be the year of Chekhov's Uncle Vanya, a tale of love, loss and longing. There have been a multitude of adaptations produced locally in the last 12 months. New Jewish Theatre has jumped right on that bandwagon with Aaron Posner's reworking of the Chekhov play into Life Sucks. Whereas the original Chekhovian tale can be downright depressing, Posner has given us a brash and revelatory adaptation that is wholly irreverent, hilarious, quirky and endearing. Yet it is brilliantly faithful to its source. New Jewish Theatre will produce it as the final show of the 2017-18 Season from May 23 - June 10 directed by incoming Artistic Director, Edward Coffield.

In both the Chekhov original and in this humane and clever adaptation, Posner brings a playful, far from cynical originality to the story. The play is about love, loss and longing, with a healthy dose of Jewish philosophizing thrown in. Set in the here and now, we meet a group of yearning, frustrated, heartbroken, questioning, and in many ways privileged souls. They are, in their varied and deeply flawed ways, trying to cope with all of the essential conundrums of existence.

Their concerns are ones we are all familiar with. We all know the pain of age, or overwork, or of desperately loving someone with whom you could never share a kiss. It aches and it sucks. But all that aching and sucking is what makes you feel alive, and the unfulfilled longing that you feel so deeply lets you know that your feelings run that deep. All of these characters, a group of old friends, ex-lovers, estranged in-laws, and lifelong enemies have gathered to grapple with life's thorniest questions-and each other. Incurably lustful and lonely, hapless and hopeful, these seven souls collide and stumble their way towards a new understanding that LIFE SUCKS! Or does it? It depends on who you ask.

What results is riffs on topics including work-life balance; the fate of the environment; why we love to hate gyms; academic pretension; depression; growing old; how families are both impossible and indispensable; and our never-ending effort to balance morality and desire. It's thoroughly entertaining. Frequently funny. Attuned to the self-dramatizing excess through which we try to tell ourselves and the world that we actually matter. And deeply moving in explaining why we carry on, even during the many days when we're sure we'll be forgotten.

Never has unhappiness been so much fun

The production features, Jeff Cummings*, Michelle Hand, Christopher Harris*, Katie Keating, Greg Johnston, Julie Layton and Jan Meyer. Life Sucks will run May 23 - June 10 in the JCC's Wool Studio Theatre, 2 Millstone Campus Drive. Tickets are $36 for preview performance, $39 - $44 all other performances and are available online at newjewishtheatre.org or 314-442-3283.