Soulpepper – Turgenev’s A Month in the Country

Reviewed by Paula Citron

Problematic Hungarian director Laszlo Marton is Soulpepper’s perennial favourite for the classics – in this case, Turgenev’s A Month in the Country. Happily, this production is more enjoyable than other Marton opuses.

Marton and Susan Coyne adapted the play, so the focus is on Marton’s favourite directing tools – colloquial speech, reality and naturalism, and real time. Marton also has some excellent actors to manipulate, particularly Fiona Byrne, Diego Matamoras and Joseph Ziegler.

He has, however, made a bad move in updating the action when the text and situations are completely out of time. In fact, it jars. While Jeff Lillico is a wonderful actor, he’s just not right for Belyaev – the young student who is the object of Natalya’s adoration which is at the crux of the play. Then there’s the directed overacting of David Storch as Natalya’s husband.

The water motif is overkill symbolism.

A Month in the Country continues at the Young Centre until Aug. 7.

A Month in the Country
Soulpepper
Written by Ivan Turgenev (adapted by Susan Coyne and Laszlo Marton)
Directed by Laszlo Marton
Performed by Fiona Byrne, Diego Matamoros, Tal Gottfried, Jeff Lillico, Joseph Ziegler, Diana Bentley, David Storch, Hazel Desbarats, Nancy Palk, Michael Simpson, William Webster and Charles Vandervaart
Theatre, Jul. 6 to Aug. 7