Town Hall brings it with Christopher Durang’s dark comedy ‘Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike’

As absurd as it is sad, Christopher Durang’s Tony-winning 2013 comedy Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike shows the playwright doing what he does best: taking screwed-up people and pushing them into ever more uncomfortable situations. This one may not be Durang’s crispest work plot-wise, but helplessness and despair is very much in this month, making Vanya at least one way to attempt escape.

In the Town Hall Arts Center production now open in Littleton, Director John C. Ashton has a killer cast to work with. Bernie Cardell is spot-on as sad-sack Vanya — a man who’s been stuck in his childhood home well into his 50s alongside his equally pathetic sister Sonia, artfully played by Gin Walker. Moping around in their PJs, they look like two battered old guppies, long forgotten in a fishbowl awaiting the end.

The plot, such as it is, involves the arrival of their sister Masha and her new boy-toy Spike. She’s an aging action-film star short on role offers, and she’s come to tell her sibs that financial circumstances require she sell the house they’ve lived in on her dime for years. Maggie Lamb has a lot of fun with the role, convincingly depicting Masha as her shrunken former self papered over with blustery BS.

Playing her support stud Spike is omg-where-did-you-find-this-guy-he’s-perfect Beau Fisher. He’s got the requisite buff bod in spades along with a head as empty as deep space and the libidinous energy of a horny hamster. It’s one of those performances where the rest of the cast seems as intrigued as the audience. One could argue playing an over-the-top doofus like Spike is Acting 101, but Fisher sells it amazingly well with an earnestness dialed up to 11 and an intensity that’s a wonder to behold.

Kayleigh Bernier and Beau Fisher in ‘Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike’ at Town Hall | Photo: RDGPhotography

It’s no surprise that this font of masculine energy (also in vogue, thanks to Mark Zuckerberg) has a wandering eye. It soon lands on the siblings’ niece Nina — a daisy-fresh young neighbor played by Kayleigh Bernier. She’s more interested in a play Vanya has written than in Spike’s soulless abs, and her hearty disdain for him is a refreshing departure from the helpless ingenue archetype.

The cast is rounded out by ineffective housekeeper Cassandra, who really does have clairvoyant moments ignored by the rest. In Durang’s version, Cassandra also has an actor’s trunk full of snippets from around the theatrical canon she blurts out between emotive gasps and ludicrous poses. Sanya Bhatia captures the character beautifully, all clanking bracelets and flowing skirts while dispensing rapid-fire bullshit when all anyone really wants is for her to make lunch.

Sanya Bhatia as Cassandra in ‘Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike’ at Town Hall | Photo: RDGPhotography

Party time

So, with all of these characters in place, where does one go with them? Why, to a costume party, of course. Masha somehow learned of the event in the neighborhood and has come prepared with a ridiculous Snow White costume. Somehow, she thinks the getup will restore her youth if only for one night, but she’s immediately upstaged by Spike in a sexy prince getup and the virginal Nina shimmering in a white gown.

At Masha’s insistence, Vanya dons a pitiful dwarf costume while Sonia goes her own way in an actually flattering gown and accompanying accent that channels a well-known British actress.

We don’t see the party; only the aftermath, but it sets in motion a series of confrontations and hardly unexpected resolutions. Vanya may not be as wildly funny as other Durang works like The Actor’s Nightmare or Beyond Therapy, but it draws plenty of laughs at the expense of its bottom-dwelling characters. Ashton does a nice job moving them around on a tiny chess board per the script while teasing out every bit of mirth with the help of a game, excellent cast.

Durang left the stage last year at age 75, leaving behind a body of work that goes largely unproduced these days. Some say it’s dated, but how do you argue with the value of absurdist, fatalistic comedy in 2025? Vanya was one of his final plays, and kudos to Town Hall for producing it in such loving fashion.