“The Good Doctor” by Neil Simon, the next production at the Ice Factory for Teignmouth Players is an odd one in that it blends the short stories of one of the last century’s great Russian playwrights, dramatised by one of the US’ great comic writers.
In addition to his better-known plays, Anton Chekhov wrote over 200 short stories, many of them when he was a young man in his twenties. He is one of the most lauded Russian authors of the late 19th century. His finest plays are still regularly performed across the world including The Cherry Orchard, Uncle Vanya, and The Three Sisters. The latter movingly referred to in one of the play-lets in this production.
Neil Simon, the popular Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright of The Odd Couple and Lost in Yonkers, here takes nine of Chekhov’s short stories and weaves them into a series of short “plays.”
So two great authors, from different continents and different ages are brought together in this quirky set of 9 play-lets. Each of the stories is set in a different scenario which, when originally performed on Broadway would have been a real challenge...with a several revolving stages! Although the Ice Factory has, as yet anyway, not achieved that level of technological sophistication the Players hope that their solution to the problem will be innovative and enable you enjoy the production fully.
It is a play that exposes the ridiculous, the tender, the outlandish, ludicrous, innocent, and weird frailties of human beings, each scene telling its own story, but the behavior of the characters and the resolutions of their stories are far from typical or predictable.
The play calls for 20 characters to be played by 5 actors across 9 different scenarios. Its worth seeing for that alone!
“The Good Doctor” is directed by Paul Loveless and is being performed at the Ice Factory Studio Theatre in Teignmouth between October 15th and 19th at 7:30pm.
The Players look forward to welcoming you to their 50 seat theatre that brings you close to the action and hope that you will enjoy the evening.
