Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike

Name: Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike
Start: 2025-03-14T19:30:00-04:00
End: 2025-03-14T22:00:00-04:00
Location: MAC Downtown

An Eastbound Theatre Production

A sharp, Tony Award-winning comedy where sibling rivalries, fading dreams and a surprise visit from a movie star collide in a chaotic, humorous fashion.

Written by Christopher Durang,
Directed by Richard Mancini

Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays – February 06-21
Fri/Sat at 7:30 pm || Sunday Matinee at 2 pm

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Eastbound Theatre Season,

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Eastbound Theatre Presents

Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike

Written by Christopher Durang
Directed by Richard Mancini
Co-producers: Michael Shavel and Molly McCullough

This Tony Award-winning comedy centers on the tensions between three middle-aged siblings living in a country house in Bucks County, Pennsylvania.

Vanya and Sonia lead a quiet, uneventful life—until their glamorous, movie-star sister, Masha, arrives unexpectedly with her much younger lover, Spike. What follows is a whirlwind of comic chaos, theatrical arguments, and emotional revelations as the siblings confront aging, identity, family regrets, and the threat of losing their beloved home.

Infused with wit and absurdity, the play explores the clash between the ordinary and the extraordinary, drawing inspiration from the works of Anton Chekhov. Subtle nods—including a fading cherry orchard and an avant-garde play within the play—add literary depth without requiring prior knowledge of Chekhov.

Critics praised Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike for its sharp humor, emotional resonance, and its ability to blend modern family dysfunction with classic themes. The play won the 2013 Tony Award and NY Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Play as well as the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding play for its comic sharpness and emotional resonance.

Learn more about the author: Christopher Durang

Cast Members

Joan Barere (Sonia)

Joan is never so happy on stage as at the MAC, especially with such wonderful and talented friends, old and new. Eastbound Theatre audiences have seen Joan in Dead Man’s Cell Phone (Mrs. Gottlieb), The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife (Marjorie), Blame it on Becket (Tina Fike), A Streetcar Named Desire (Nurse/Mexican Woman), and Incorruptible (Peasant Woman). Other favorite roles: Mistress Quickly, Merry Wives of Windsor (Hudson Shakespeare); Titania, Midsummer Night’s Dream (Theatre West); Anna, Our Mother’s Brief Affair (Westport Community); Grandma Kurnitz, Lost in Yonkers (Cheshire); Bubbie, Crossing Delancey (Darien Arts Center); and Daisy Stanley, The Man Who Came to Dinner (Curtain Call). Thanks so much Rich, Mike, and Molly. And love to Iz.

Tristan Lariccia (Spike)

Tristan is thrilled to be making his Eastbound Theatre debut. He was originally set to make his debut here as Romeo in Romeo in Juliet until COVID came to town! Tristan holds a BA in Theatre from Southern Connecticut State University and is delighted to bring Spike to life with this incredible company. Previous credits include Gallathea (Augur), The Laramie Project (Aaron McKinney and others), Our Town (George Gibbs), and Outward Bound (Tom Prior). He would also like to thank his inspiration, April Lichtman, his husband, Tyler, and his mother, Laura for their endless love, support and for being the best scene partners.

Katelyn Winter (Nina)

Katelyn is thrilled to be making her debut with Eastbound Theater. She was last seen on-stage at Muhlenberg College, where she studied both stage and on-camera acting. Her BA is in English and she believes her skills as a creative writer and an actor greatly influence each other, especially with character-building. She hopes to continue to be a part of the thriving theater arts scene in her new home state of Connecticut, and she would like to thank everyone involved with Vanya, Sonia, Masha and Spike for their hard work and welcoming attitudes, as well as her husband Noah, for always supporting her passions.

Leslie Jones (Cassandra)

Leslie is thrilled to be back on the EBT stage in this hilarious production of VSM&S. Her last EBT performance was in Deadman's Cellphone as the Other Woman/Stranger. Most recently she was Miss Prism in The New Canaan Town Players’ production of The Importance of Being Ernest, Sir Hugh Evans in The Merry Wives of Windsor (Hudson Shakespeare), and Dora Bunner in A Murder is Announced (Curtain Call’s Dressing Room Theater). Thanks to Rich and our stellar cast for all the laughs. Love to Ed for putting up with my theater addiction.

Lucy Babbitt (Masha)

Lucy Babbitt first appeared at Eastbound Theater in another Christopher Durang play: Sister Ignatius Explains It All for You as Sister Ignatius and later as Mrs. Gibbs in Our Town. More recently, Lucy has performed as Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest with the Town Players of New Canaan, and as Mother Miriam Ruth in Agnes of God, and Mrs. Bennett in Pride and Prejudice, both with the Westport Community Theater. Along with her husband, Mark Frattaroli (Vanya) and friend Peter Wood, Lucy produced, directed, and performed at The Players at Putney Gardens - an outdoor summer Shakespeare troupe in Stratford - where favorite roles included Lady Macbeth, Rosalind, Beatrice, and Chekov’s Arkadina in The Seagull. She also enjoyed multiple roles with the late great Square One Theater in Stratford.

Mark Frattaroli (Vanya)

Mark Frattaroli is a retired English and Theater teacher at Fairfield Warde High School where he directed over 43 plays and musicals in the course of 24 years. He has acted at many local theaters: including WCT , Newtown Town Players, Square One,, and Eastbound. In addition to acting, Mark also directs, (Pride and Prejudice at Westport and most recently Antigone here at Eastbound) And with wife Lucy Babbitt and friend Peter Wood, he founded and ran The Players at Putney Gardens presenting outdoor Shakespeare in Stratford. He both acted (Benedick, Bottom, Leontes) and directed (most proudly Macbeth and The Seagull). He and Lucy have two grown children, one daughter-in-law and one grandson.

Rich Mancini – Director

Richard is thrilled to be directing again at the MAC’s Eastbound Theatre – where he’s been active as an actor, “techie” and director since EBT’s second season in 1995, has served on the board for many of those years, and considers this theatre a “home.” For Eastbound, Rich most recently directed last season’s Outside Mullingar, co-directed our outdoor production of Our Town, and over the decades has previously staged Album, These Shining Lives, Moonlight & Magnolias, You Can’t Take It With You, Mere Mortals, Laughter on the 23rdFloor, Five Women Wearing the Same Dress, Dancing at Lughnasa, The Children’s Hour and many original one-acts and staged readings. He’s also appeared onstage here in Dear Ruth, The Butler Did It, The Seven Year Itch and Love, Sex and the IRS. Directorial credits elsewhere over the past few years include Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Philadelphia, Here I Come!, George Washington Slept Here, The Diary of Anne Frank, Fences, Laughter on the 23rd Floor, Cactus Flower, Same Time, Next Year, The Lion in Winter, Romantic Comedy, The Exonerated, John Loves Mary, The Days of Wine and Roses, Take Me Out, The Miracle Worker, Irena’s Vow, and The Crucible. He salutes this wonderful cast and crew, and hopes you enjoy the show!

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**Director’s Note for Vanya & Sonia & Masha & Spike / EBT / February 2026**

The author of 20 full-length plays, four musicals and many short plays known for their often outrageous and absurd style of humor across five decades, playwright Christopher Durang(1949-2024) was, in my humble opinion, a true American treasure. Blending elements of parody, farce, black comedy and social criticism in such acclaimed works as Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All For You, Beyond Therapy, The Actor’s Nightmare, Baby with the Bathwater, The Marriage of Bette and Boo, Laughing Wild, For Whom the Southern Belle Tolls, Miss Witherspoon, A History of the American Film and others, Durang turned a piercing, twisted, humorous eye on difficult subjects ranging from religious dogma to psychotherapy, depression, family dysfunction, war and death.

As Durang himself explained: “I exaggerate awful things further, and then I present it in a way that is funny, and for those of who find it funny, it has to do with a very clear suspension of disbelief. It is a play, after all, with acted characters; it allows us a distance we couldn’t have in reality. To me this distance allows me to find some rather serious topics funny.”

For Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike – which won the 2013 Tony Award for Best Play –Durang drew upon his decades-long fascination with the plays of Anton Chekhov to craft a hilarious take on contemporary 21st-Century American society through a Chekhov-tinged lens. Again, in the playwright’s own words: “The play is not based on Chekhov, nor is it a parody of Chekhov. Chekhov is more of a personal jumping-off point for me. It’s as if I took characters and themes from Chekhov and put them in a blender.”