Word: aleksii
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...script so oriented toward talk, “Slavs!” seems like a strange choice to interpret in American Sign Language (ASL). For example, when Janelle Mills, a faculty assistant at Harvard Business School, delivered a stirring monologue on the problems of the Soviet Union as activist Aleksii Antedilluvianovich Prelapsarianov, her stirring performance was almost completely based in her voice. The challenge of translating such a stirring spech into sign language was masterfully achieved by the show’s interpreters, who were actors in their own right, conveying the emotions and personalities of the characters with their...
While both Augustine and Siemens give excellent and highly amusing performances, Erik Amblad '98 quickly steals the scene as Aleksii Antedilluvianovich Prelapsarianov, or, as he claims to be, "the world's oldest living Bolshevik." Although Amblad's monologue grows a bit monotonous after a while, he still brings the essence of Aleksii, and of all of Kushner's characters--knee-slapping irony and witticisms combined with genuine emotional depth--to life. He leaves the audience giggling uncontrollably with lines such as "You're practically bugging me," spoken to the closely-following and nearly-blind Serge; and "God is a Menshevik...
When the uptight Ippolite Ippopolitovich Popolitipov, or "Popo" (Chuck O'Toole '97), and the fidgety Yegor Tremens Rodent, or "Rodent" (Matthew Johnson '99), enter just after Aleksii's speech, one's feelings become torn. It is obvious that the two men are going to destroy both Aleksii and Serge--and they do, both morally and literally--but their coldness and ludicrous idiosincracies just make them all the more hilarious to watch. Johnson displayed his great versatility as an actor in last spring's Catch 22, and he does so again in Slavs!. Rodent, a stuttering likeness of Nathan Lane, captivates...
...Toole who is the real star of the first half of Slavs!. Popo brushes off the whining Rodent and barely sniffs when both Aleksii and Serge die right in front of him, and then runs off to...play his beloved girlfriend a love song on his guitar?!? O'Toole brings facial and vocal expression to hilarious limits, but without ever falling into the trap of acting crass or melodramatic. His sharply calm, no-nonsense voice melts faster than the Chernobyl reactor in the presence of his sweetheart, the cruel and mocking Katherina Serafima Gleb (Sara Yellen '00). She, in turn...
...play's finale that is both the most obscure and the most disturbing scene in the entire production. Aleksii and Serge play cards in heaven and try not to look down on the former Soviet Union to see what's going on. Once they are joined by Vodya, who has ironically enough gained her voice (which makes her even more frightening than when she was silent), they all contemplate the purpose of one's existence and the use of fighting for beliefs in a world that, ultimately, leaves almost all of its inhabitants asking, "What is to be done?" Leaving...
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