A provocative 'Neva' at Playhouse

Three-actor play gets at the beating heart of what it means to make theater

Sue Cremin, Ramón de Ocampo and Ruth Livier (left to right) in La Jolla Playhouse’s production of "Neva."
Sue Cremin, Ramón de Ocampo and Ruth Livier (left to right) in La Jolla Playhouse’s production of "Neva." — Craig Schwartz

Guillermo Calderón’s “Neva” is a rare specimen: A play you can't take your eyes off of, even if it's also a play you can barely see.

That's not just because the ultra-compact, three-actor staging is illuminated by a single light source - a portable floodlight that sits at the cast's feet - but also because the piece has a fleeting, here-today-gone-tomorrow run. (More accurately: gone Sunday, which is when the final performance takes place.)

With all that's going on in San Diego theater at the moment, this will correspondingly be a short reaction to the piece. But in brief: If you like to see acting and writing that can both affirm the power of theater and make you question almost everything about it, get down to La Jolla Playhouse to take this one in.

"Neva" (named for the river that flows through St. Petersburg, Russia, where the play takes place) is a fictionalized look at an agonized 1905 rehearsal of Anton Chekhov's "The Cherry Orchard," unfolding in a dark, cold rehearsal space while political violence - a prelude to the coming Russian revolution - rages outside.

The central figure is Olga Knipper (Sue Cremin), the Russian actress recently widowed by Chekhov; and two of Knipper's would-be "Cherry Orchard" castmates, played by Ruth Livier and Ramón de Ocampo.

The piece (a Playhouse co-production with South Coast Rep and L.A.'s Centre Theatre Group) is startlingly funny given the circumstances, as the characters alternate between the histrionics of their acting exercises and heartbreak over what they sense is happening outside. (They don't know whether the other actors in their production, who have not shown up yet, are dead or alive.)

Cremin is perfectly pitched to Knipper's mix of neediness, cynicism and raw pain, and all three actors work together in almost musical harmony (although defiantly in a minor key).

And near the play's conclusion, Livier launches into a stupendous, breathless aria of rage, railing at art, acting and even the audience for ignoring real-life suffering.

That virtuoso moment alone makes it worth giving "Neva" a visit.


8 p.m. tonight (June 28) and Saturday; 2 p.m. Sunday. Theodore and Adele Shank Theatre, La Jolla Playhouse, 2910 La Jolla Village Drive (UC San Diego campus). $30; (858) 550-1010 or lajollaplayhouse.org.


