Nashville Rep dives into absurdest comedy 'Vanya'

Trish Clark, resident costume designer for Nashville Repertory Theatre, has been having some new conversations of late — and plenty have leaned toward the absurd.

She's certainly worked with Nate Eppler before in his roles as playwright-in-residence and actor. But Eppler is about to direct his first main stage production for Nashville Rep, and those conversations have been both "interesting and playful," Clark says.

The work at hand is the 2013 Tony Award-winning play "Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike," Christopher Durang's creative Chekhovian mash-up. Just as with any absurdest theater, things start out realistic and comfortable — but then start going off the rails.

A meeting of the muses

"This play is a little carnival of fun," Eppler says. After the Rep's two recent heavier productions, "The Whipping Man" and "Death of a Salesman," "this is definitely dessert." It follows grown-up siblings Vanya and Sonia, still living on their childhood estate but noticing life has passed them by, and their successful sister Masha the actress, who suddenly shows up with her young "boy toy" Spike in tow. But there's also a star-struck would-be performer visiting family next door, a cleaning lady who also happens to be a soothsayer, and more than a nod to Anton Chekhov's comedic genius. Eppler is literally giddy with the possibilities.

"My first favorite playwright was Durang," he says. "I don't think I even conceived what a playwright was until Durang. I read my first one of his plays in high school, 'Baby With the Bathwater,' and I hadn't ever come across a play that so matched my own sense of humor. That led me to reading more plays in general. If it wasn't for Durang, I don't think I would have been a playwright. By the time I was in college, I had come across Chekhov, who was easily my favorite author."

His own work developed "somewhere between Chekhov and Durang," he says, "which is a bold statement but a terrible blend."

Until now. In "Vanya," Durang has created a work that stands on its own as an outrageous comedy — but is all the more rich for those who recognize the Chekhovian elements. It is, Eppler says, "a candy-colored world thrown on top of this muted canvas."

Costumes are key

Naturally, that can't happen without Clark, which brings us back to those conversations. A hallmark of her work at the Rep — she estimates she has designed costumes for about 50 Rep productions — is to ask the actors involved about, for example, how the characters change as the play goes along, and how that could best be represented visually, in both big and little ways.

Here, she has a great team to work with: Bobby Wyckoff, Martha Wilkinson, Shelean Newman, Brett Cantrell, Jennifer Richmond and Tamiko Robinson.

"I know how talented these people are," Clark says. "If they were in jeans and T-shirts, they'd still be completely hilarious." All the same, "the characters are quirky. That's a fine line to walk: How do you help them be funny without upstaging them? You don't ever want people to notice the costume first."

With this piece in particular, Eppler says, the costumes are key. The whole play is about identity and "who we wish we were." Never mind the fact that there's a literal costume ball right in the midst of it. But since it's a small cast — and Clark has been able to work with many of them before — some of those conversations end up as shorthand.

"A costume designer's relationship with the actors and director can be very collaborative," she says. "And fun. At the Rep, we build every production from the ground up. We're not doing it as if we're going to run it for a week with these actors, and then plug in someone else. What we do with every production is really try to make it ours."

If you go

What: Nashville Repertory Theatre presents the Tony Award-winning comedy "Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike."

When: Thursday through April 25. This week's "preview" performances ($25) are at 7:30 p.m. Thursday and Friday. Otherwise, performances are at 6:30 p.m. Tuesdays-Thursdays; 7:30 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays; and 2:30 p.m. April 18 and 25. Opening Saturday includes a First Night supper club option.

Where: Tennessee Performing Arts Center's Johnson Theater, 505 Deaderick St.

Tickets: $45. Recommended for high school and older.

Contact:www.nashvillerep.org or 615-782-4040

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