Coming up next from Parkland Theatre is Neil Simon’s Broadway hit The Good Doctor, opening Thursday, March 23rd. This 1973 comedy with music adapts short stories from the works of 19th-century Russian playwright Anton Chekhov as a series of vignettes. In “The Sneeze” (based on “The Death of a Government Clerk”), a government clerk has a nervous breakdown after sneezing in the wrong place at the wrong time. In “Surgery” (based on the story of the same name), a sexton with a toothache is unnerved by their dentist’s passion for the work. And in “The Drowned Man,” a crafty street performer pretends to drown themself for money in the name of entertainment. The ensemble cast features ten student actors, some performing onstage for the first time, each playing two or three characters throughout the play. “You might see the same person as the head of a household, a nervous wreck, and a silent character at the opera,” said director Michael O’Brien.
This production is O’Brien’s second time overseeing The Good Doctor, having previously worked on the show in Wisconsin fifteen years ago. He reflected on what it means today to put on a play from 1973 based on short stories from the 1800s, weighing what has changed against what has not. While he admitted with a chuckle to being more familiar with Neil Simon’s writing than Chekhov’s, O’Brien observed that both writers were interested in exploring the often unusual aspects of friendships and relationships. The director described Chekhov as “deeply human” in a way that is conveyed well through Simon’s signature bone-dry humor. “Each scene has a different tone, whether it’s slapstick, drawing room drama, or both,” said O’Brien. Between the scene of a mother making up reasons to fire her children’s governess, the one of an actor walking four days to an audition and bungling it, or the one of a high-strung woman using an exasperated banker as a listening ear, this play has something for everybody.
O’Brien spoke highly of the cast’s contributions to the production process both onstage and behind the scenes, likening it to them helping him see through the eyes of more than twenty characters. The student actors got the chance to make their own choices regarding the play’s blocking, costumes, lighting, and sound design, with the director noting that they took “ownership, rather than control” of their scenes. “I had them come to me with ideas and 99% of them ended up in the show,” said O’Brien proudly. The text is largely unchanged from the original script, with the exception of some minor alterations to a scene of a father taking his 19-year-old son to a brothel. After some of the actors expressed discomfort with the scene as it was written, O’Brien praised them for telling him, then worked with them towards a solution. An ensemble cast is as strong as the sum of its parts, and with the strength of the artistic talent behind it, Parkland Theatre’s The Good Doctor promises to breathe new life into this reimagining of Chekhov’s short stories.
The Good Doctor
Parkland Theatre’s Second Stage Theatre
2400 W Bradley Ave
Champaign
March 23-25; 7:30 p.m.
March 26; 3 p.m.
Tickets available online; $10