THEATER REVIEW
IVANOV
Classic Stage Company, 136 E. 13th St.; 212-677-4210. Through Dec. 9. Running time: 180 minutes, one intermission.
As the title character in Chekhov's "Ivanov," Ethan Hawke plays a real piece of work. "You've brought darkness to our lives," a neighbor complains. The local doctor accuses Ivanov of "heartless egotism," adding, "I loved and respected mankind, until I met you."
Nobody in their right mind would want to spend three hours in this guy's company.
Unless, that is, you're at the Classic Stage Company, where an energetic, sharp revival opened last night under Austin Pendleton's direction.
Paralyzed by depression, which leads to self-loathing, which leads to guilt, Ivanov, an upper-class man living off his estate, is an unlikely — and unlikable — protagonist. This may explain why this play isn't produced as much here as Chekhov's classics, all of which the CSC revived in the past five years — you might refer to them by the umbrella handle "Three Sisters and Uncle Vanya Chase a Seagull in the Cherry Orchard."
Joan Marcus
Ethan Hawke's brilliant Ivanov is full of rage, and Joely Richardson is wonderful as his wife.
While many Chekhov characters revel in inaction while talking about wanting to do something, Ivanov goes further: "I do nothing, I think nothing, and I'm weary, body and soul," he says in Carol Rocamora's swift new translation.
This deep, dark hole of misery swallows up everyone in the near vicinity. Ivanov has crippling debts, but can't bring himself to attend to his business to pay them off. His devoted wife, Anna (Joely Richardson), is dying of consumption, yet he ignores her.
"Why don't people respond to love with love?" Anna muses desperately. Richardson is remarkable as a husk of a woman, gliding across Santo Loquasto's austere, bleached-wood set like a ghost.
You could easily imagine Ivanov played as a mopey, dithering soul — a Russian version of Hamlet. But here, he's filled with rage, and it's this potent if negative energy that fuels the show. Under a shock of permanent bed hair, Hawke's Ivanov isn't limp and passive, but neurotic and irritable.
"You are unhappy because you are lonely," argues the young Sasha (the luminous Juliet Rylance, late of CSC's "Three Sisters" and "The Cherry Orchard"). She doesn't see it's precisely the reverse, but that's because she's in love with Ivanov and thinks she can save him.
With her romantic delusions, Sasha is just one of the play's many psychologically astute characterizations. Another is Sasha's father, Lebedev (Pendleton, who took over the role on short notice when the original actor injured himself).
Here, Lebedev is a fidgety, shuffling figure, torn by his affection for Ivanov, his desire not to see Sasha suffer, and the fact that his wife (Roberta Maxwell) is owed thousands of rubles by their gloomy neighbor.
Like everyone else, he's at a loss on how to deal with a man who alternates between taking his funk out on himself and onto others — and makes the play's conclusion both entirely predictable and a jolting shock.
elisabeth.vincentelli@nypost.com
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