Stage

In his day job Anton Chekhov (1860-1904) was indeed a doctor. And America's favorite gagmeister Neil Simon is called "Doc" by his close friends. Other than that and their both writing for the stage, Chekhov and Simon are not often spoken of in the same voice. Except, that is, for The Good Doctor, Simon's 1974 adaptation of the Russian master's snippets and fragments. Both docs gain in this collaboration, the current Appleseed Productions effort at Atonement Lutheran Church, 116 W. Glen Ave.

A narrator known ambiguously as "The Writer" (Simon wrote his lines but he speaks for Chekhov) frames this collection of 11 playlets on such themes as the absurdity of cruelty and the fatuousness of vanity. William Edward White as "The Writer" is, curiously, the only player with a Russian accent. While Chekhov is darkly comic, most of these items are really laugh-out-loud funny, without cheapening or otherwise doing violence to their points.

The first selection, while not the very best, shows how these work. In "The Sneeze," a minor bureaucrat (Doug Rougeux) sits behind a high official (Dave Tobin) at the opera house, but instead of advancing his career he sneezes on the august man's neck. Tormented with worry, the low-level man keeps making matters worse by waiting in line at the other man's office, hoping to make abject apologies for an episode the official has forgotten. Without having read the original, we recognize the pathos as Chekhovian, but the laughter generated equals top moments in Simon's Broadway comedies.

The least Simonesque, most Chekhovian, sequence also works with more subdued laughter. An aspiring actress (Melissa Kuersteiner, formerly Green) walks all the way from Odessa to Moscow for an audition with the great playwright, whose voice is heard from offstage. After coming off as a clueless hick, she reads a passage from The Three Sisters, blowing away both the author and us.

While not all the playlets are equally successful, the best rely on the talents of the company's two male comedians. Offstage, J.P. Crangle is a well-known cartoonist, and Doug Rougeux is, literally, a clown with a degree from Ringling Brothers in Florida. In their top pairing, "Surgery," Rougeux is an incompetent dentist's assistant who somehow is assigned to pull the tooth (with industrial-sized pliers) of a man convulsed in pain. Such effective slapstick may not sound like either playwright until we remember the pain and incompetence that brought it about.

Crangle leads off the second act with a pathetically absurd character who feigns suicide by drowning off a pier while the rich pay to watch. Rougeux's second-best moment comes in the skit where he appears as a shy, young Chekhov being forced into lessons about the facts of life with a demure professional (Susan L. Schoolcraft).

Straight-faced Dave Tobin closes the first act with "The Seduction," as the vain but self-deceiving lothario who tells how he can tempt another man's wife (JoAnne Simiele) by having her husband pass along outrageous compliments.

Director Patricia Elisa Catchouny delivers the laughs in the right places but sometimes neglects timing, as in misfires like "The Governess." Also regrettable, she dropped one of the play's best bits in which two old officers have a verbal duel on which one can conjure up the more sumptuous meal. But Appleseed Productions' unique policy of passing out free coffee and desserts at intermission makes up for the loss.

This production runs through Feb. 3. See Times Table for information.

--James MacKillop