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January 26, 2002
Section: CNY
Edition: Final
Page: D5

Appleseed Productions' theater in the basement of Atonement Lutheran Church is a hospitable place to watch a play - 
the audience sits informally, six or eight to a table, and snacks are served at intermission.

And Appleseed's "The Good Doctor," directed by Patricia Elise Catchouny, is well worth the watching.

It treats the audience to a rich array of nine scenes and moods, most of them comic, adapted from the works of 
Anton Chekhov.

William Edward White, who does an urbane job as The Writer, is really two writers and "good doctors" in one: 
Chekhov, who was a physician as well as an author, and Neil "Doc" Simon, who linked and adapted Chekhov's stories.

As White re-creates a writer at work, he and the actors in other roles sometimes echo lines, and one sees how 
interlocked a writer is with his creations.

Is the Writer giving the characters their lines, or is he really listening to what they say and then setting it down?

And why, the Writer muses, do we find laughter in suffering?

The opener, "The Sneeze," catches perfectly Chekhov's mingling of comedy and calamity. Doug Rougeux plays a 
minor clerk who sneezes on the boss (Dave Tobin) of his department. The incident preys on the clerk's mind, and he 
can't get over it.

"Surgery" is wild, beautifully done slapstick, with Rougeux as a physician's helper, and J. P. Crangle as a vicar with a 
tooth that needs pulling.

In "The Governess," we get a look at a lowly governess (Susan L. Schoolcraft) and her overbearing mistress 
(Melissa K. Kuersteiner).

The production suffers sometimes from a perfunctory reading of lines and the small gaps between speeches that keep 
dialogue from sounding natural.

But the script is a delight, with all kinds of twists, angles and strange suppositions.

"The Drowned Man," for example, set on a waterfront, anticipates performance art, as a man (Crangle) offers - at a cost 
of three rubles - to entertain The Writer by enacting a drowning.

In "The Audition," Kuersteiner touchingly portrays a young amateur actress auditioning for a surly Chekhov, at last 
winning his approval with the final lines of his "The Three Sisters."

JoAnne Simiele, in "The Seduction," is a passion-starved wife who unexpectedly turns the tables on a gallant (Tobin) 
with a knack for seducing other men's wives.

"Too Late for Happiness" is a sentimental change of pace, with Crangle and Kuersteiner as two elderly people who just 
might be ready to fall in love. 

Copyright © 2002 The Post-Standard.