Burnt by the Sun
At Jericho Arts Centre until April 22
Tickets: 604-224-8007
unitedplayers.com
I have to think much got lost in the translation from Russian because I was bewildered by the end of Burnt by the Sun. The good guyBolshevik war hero Kotov (Thomas Saunders)is actually sort of a bad guy. He patronizes his wife Maroussia (Alexandra Lipskaia), insults her assembled relatives and pulls rank on a couple of soldiers, sneering at one of them by calling him pretty boy. When his wifes charismatic former lover Mitya (Richard Stroh) arrives at the familys summer house near Moscow, Kotov gives Mitya a cool reception and ends up calling him pretty boy, too. But in a surprise ending, during which Kotov calls another guy pretty boy (his only pejorative, obviously), Kotov turns out to be not so bad after all. And Mitya, who has completely charmed us, turns out to be really, really bad but he has been coerced. I think.
Its 1936; Stalin is running amok. There are purges. Its a confusing time. So no wonder we have trouble sorting the heroes from the villains in this play, adapted for stage by Peter Flannery from the award-winning 1994 screenplay by Nikita Sergeyevich Mikhalkov and Rustam Ibragimbekov.
Directed by Elizabeth McLaughlin for United Players, this is an ambitious undertaking with some successes. Eight-year-old Eliza Ryder is so sweet and merrily holds her own in the midst of this cast of 14. Rebecca Walters does a fine turn as the familys maid Mokhova, and James Gill is always interesting as the ineffectual intellectual, Vsevolod.
But Im not sure why Yvetta Fisher (as Olga) has a Russian accent and none of the others (including Hilary Parizat, Sherwin Buydens and Dave Campbell) do. The sound quality of Mityas frequent turns at the piano just isnt convincing and the performances range from terrific (Stroh) to OK.
But, mostly, its the bewildering twists and turns of the plot that bring this production down. In the shocking conclusion, a patron near me exclaimed out loud, What the hell? I couldnt have said it better.
