Reviewed by:

• Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812 by Dave Malloy
• Adam Day Howard

The Great Lakes Theater needs no introduction. It has been at the forefront of the regional theatre movement since the 1960s, with luminaries like Arthur Lithgow at the helm. Its impact both regionally and nationally makes it an ideal choice to stage a new production of Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812. Writer-composer Dave Malloy is a Cleveland native, and his strong connection to the artistic community of Cleveland and its suburb Lakewood runs parallel to the Great Lakes Theater’s.

As the afternoon began, the stage was set for a blurring of lines between company and audience; the curtain was raised before the house was even open. The Hanna Theatre already boasts bar and lounge-style seating, perfect for a musical that takes place in a Russian club. Onstage bar seating was available for a few lucky ticket holders, and the seats nearest the stage had been reimagined as art-deco bar seating so that audience members could place their elbows on the stage itself. The vibe created by the set continued for the entire evening, drawing us into a sense of being somewhere we shouldn’t go—but as long we were there, we might as well enjoy ourselves.

The dark red tones of the set bled into the theatre as backlit shelves full of liquor bottles hinted at the boozy haze that the characters would inhabit. For its 2016-17 Broadway run at the Imperial Theatre, the set design for Great Comet was positively Seussian in its deconstruction of the theatre space. Regional theatre may not have the freedom or the means to take sets quite that far, but the Great Lakes Theater still masterfully blurred the liminal spaces between stage and house, company and audience.

Bussert’s cast and a live (though hidden) orchestra conveyed an immediacy that sat within the script’s nineteenth-century setting. The ensemble transmitted a strong contemporary energy that defied gender binaries while evoking the panache and energy of a bygone era of tsarist grandeur. Their performances teasingly cajoled us into audience participation, clapping along and becoming part of the club scene that animated the entire performance.

Alex Syiek (Pierre Bezukhov) and the ensemble of Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812. (Photo courtesy of Great Lakes Theater.)

From the beginning, the ensemble made a strong case for the continued relevance of the material. Then, as now, a war was on. Still, ordinary people, while aware of the war and for the most part admiring those who fought it, were too distracted by their own lives to spare the headspace to think about war all the time. The captain of this ennui is the character Pierre Bezukhov (Alex Syiek). Pierre’s aristocratic depression made him a relatable antihero [End Page 225] for a twenty-first-century audience. His relationship with Prince Andrey, who actually fights in the war, held up a sobering mirror to US society; our military, too, is in eternal combat vaguely “abroad” while we are self-involved at home, blissfully unaware of the details yet obligingly supportive of the troops. Pierre’s desperate desire for meaning and self-respect are at odds with his marriage, in which he is a hollowed-out yes man, further compounding the tensions between his intellectual life and his emotional life.

Through blistering lighting, bringing us intense and cinematic moments of news from the frontlines, and with the deft staging of sexual tension, Bussert was able to move the audience toward sympathy for completely reprehensible characters. She struck a balance between period details and contemporary concerns, including nightclub awkwardness, dangerous relationships, and the perils of violating social conventions. The characters were all on the trolley tracks and we the audience had no levers to pull.

Watching Natasha (Jessi Kirtley) crash on the rocks of a society about which she was so naïve was deliciously uncomfortable, thanks to the effortless bohemianism of the entire...

 审阅者：

• 
  娜塔莎、皮埃尔和 1812 年的大彗星 作者：戴夫·马洛伊
•  亚当·戴·霍华德

五大湖剧院无需介绍。自 20 世纪 60 年代以来，它一直处于地区戏剧运动的前沿，由阿瑟·利思戈 (Arthur Lithgow) 等杰出人物掌舵。它在地区和全国范围内的影响使其成为上演新作品《娜塔莎、皮埃尔和 1812 年大彗星》的理想选择。作家兼作曲家戴夫·马洛伊 (Dave Malloy) 是克利夫兰本地人，他与克利夫兰及其郊区的艺术界有着密切的联系莱克伍德与五大湖剧院平行。

下午开始时，舞台上的公司和观众之间的界限就变得模糊了。房子还没开门，窗帘就已经拉开了。汉纳剧院已经拥有酒吧和休息室风格的座位，非常适合在俄罗斯俱乐部上演的音乐剧。舞台上的酒吧座位可供少数幸运的持票者使用，最靠近舞台的座位被重新设计为装饰艺术风格的酒吧座位，以便观众可以将肘部放在舞台上。布景营造的氛围持续了整个晚上，让我们有一种身处不该去的地方的感觉——但只要我们在那里，我们就可以尽情享受。

布景的深红色调渗入了剧院，背光的架子上摆满了酒瓶，暗示着角色将居住的醉酒迷雾。 2016-17 年在帝国剧院举行的百老汇演出中，《大彗星》的布景设计在对剧院空间的解构方面完全是苏斯式的。地区剧院可能没有自由或手段将布景带到那么远，但五大湖剧院仍然巧妙地模糊了舞台与剧院、公司与观众之间的界限空间。

巴塞特的演员阵容和现场（尽管是隐藏的）管弦乐队在剧本的十九世纪背景下传达了一种即时性。该乐团传递出强烈的当代能量，挑战性别二元论，同时唤起过去沙皇辉煌时代的气派和活力。他们的表演戏谑地吸引着观众参与其中，一起鼓掌，成为俱乐部场景的一部分，使整个表演充满活力。

Alex Syiek（皮埃尔·别祖霍夫）和娜塔莎、皮埃尔和 1812 年大彗星乐团。（照片由五大湖剧院提供。）

从一开始，乐团就充分证明了这些材料的持续相关性。当时和现在一样，战争正在进行。尽管如此，普通人虽然了解战争，并且在很大程度上钦佩那些参加战争的人，但他们却因为自己的生活而分心，没有时间思考战争。这个无聊的队长是角色皮埃尔·别祖霍夫（亚历克斯·西耶克饰）。皮埃尔的贵族抑郁症使他成为 21 世纪观众心目中的反英雄人物[第 225 页完]。他与实际参战的安德烈亲王的关系为美国社会树立了一面清醒的镜子。我们的军队也在“国外”陷入永恒的战斗，而我们则在国内自我参与，幸福地不了解细节，但却乐于支持部队。皮埃尔对意义和自尊的极度渴望与他的婚姻格格不入，在婚姻中，他是一个被掏空的唯唯诺诺的人，进一步加剧了他的理智生活和情感生活之间的紧张关系。

通过耀眼的灯光，为我们带来来自前线的紧张而电影化的新闻时刻，以及巧妙地表现性张力，巴塞特能够让观众对完全应受谴责的角色产生同情。她在时代细节和当代关注点之间取得了平衡，包括夜总会的尴尬、危险的人际关系以及违反社会习俗的危险。角色都在电车轨道上，我们观众没有杠杆可以拉。

看着娜塔莎（杰西·科特利 Jessi Kirtley 饰）在一个她对此如此天真的社会中崩溃，是一种非常不舒服的感觉，这要归功于整个社会轻松的波西米亚主义……