1
 When the Trinity Repertory Theater named Anne Bogart its artistic director last spring, 
2
circumstance

2
the nation's theatrical cognoscenti arched a collective eyebrow.
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 Ms. Bogart, an acclaimed creator of deconstructed dramatic collages 
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that tear into such sacred texts as Rodgers and Hammerstein's South Pacific, 
3
elaboration-object-attribute-e

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is decidedly downtown.
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Same-Unit

6
 Trinity Rep meanwhile is one of the nation's oldest and most respected regional theaters, 
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still hosting an annual A Christmas Carol.
6
elaboration-additional-e

8
 How would this bastion of traditional values fare in Ms. Bogart's iconoclastic hands?
5005
rhetorical-question

9
 She held her fire with her first production at the Trinity earlier this season.
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 It was a predictable revival of her prize-winning off-Broadway anthology of Bertolt Brecht's theoretical writings, 
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11
called No Plays, No Poetry.
10
elaboration-additional-e

12
 Now, with the opening of Maxim Gorky's bourgeois-bashing Summerfolk, 
13
circumstance

13
Ms. Bogart has laid her cards on the table.
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 Hers is a hand 
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that will test the mettle of her audiences.
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elaboration-object-attribute-e

16
 For Ms. Bogart, 
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who initially studied and directed in Germany 
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List

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(and cites such European directors as Peter Stein, Giorgio Strehler and Ariane Mnouchkine as influences) 
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List

19
tends to stage her productions with a Brechtian rigor 
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Same-Unit

20
-- whether the text demands it or not.
5020
concession

21
 And Gorky, 
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considered the father of Soviet socialist realism, 
21
elaboration-additional-e

23
did not write plays 
5023
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24
that easily lend themselves to deliberately antirealistic distancing techniques.
23
elaboration-object-attribute-e

25
 Gorky was a loyal if occasionally ambivalent proletarian writer 
5032
span

26
committed to enlightening the masses with plain speaking 
5027
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27
rooted in a slightly sour version of Chekhovian humanism. 
26
elaboration-object-attribute-e

28
And Summerfolk, 
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penned in 1904 as a kind of sequel to Chekhov's Cherry Orchard, 
28
elaboration-additional-e

30
is a lawn party of Russian yuppies 
5030
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31
engaged in an exhausting ideological fight to the finish between the allrightniks and the reformers.
30
elaboration-object-attribute-e

32
 Along the way there also are lots of romantic dalliances.
5031
elaboration-additional

33
 Wisely Ms. Bogart has kept Gorky's time and place intact. 
5042
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34
Despite the absence of samovars 
5037
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35
(and a tendency 
5036
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36
to turn the furniture upside down), 
35
elaboration-object-attribute-e

37
the production is rich in Russian ennui 
5039
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38
voiced by languorous folk 
5038
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39
sporting beige linen and rumpled cotton, 
38
elaboration-object-attribute-e

40
with boaters and fishing poles aplenty.
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41
 But beyond this decorative nod to tradition, Ms. Bogart and company head off in a stylistic direction 
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span

42
that all but transforms Gorky's naturalistic drama into something akin to, well, farce.
41
elaboration-object-attribute-e

43
 The director's attempt 
5044
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44
to force some Brechtian distance between her actors and their characters 
43
elaboration-object-attribute-e

45
frequently backfires with performances 
5046
span

46
that are unduly mannered.
45
elaboration-object-attribute-e

47
 Not only do the actors stand outside their characters 
5048
List

48
and make it clear 
49
attribution

49
they are at odds with them, 
5047
span

50
but they often literally stand on their heads.
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List

51
 Like Peter Sellars, Ms. Bogart manipulates her actors 
5054
span

52
as if they were rag dolls,
51
manner

53
 sprawling them on staircases, 
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List

54
dangling them off tables, 
5055
List

55
even hanging them from precipices 
5055
List

56
while having them perform some gymnastic feats of derring-do.
5055
temporal-same-time

57
 There are moments in this Summerfolk 
5063
span

58
when the characters 
5058
span

59
populating the vast multilevel country house 
5059
span

60
(which looks like a parody of Frank Lloyd Wright 
5060
List

61
and is designed by Victoria Petrovich) 
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List

62
spout philosophic bon mots with the self-conscious rat-a-tat-tat pacing of Laugh In.
5062
Same-Unit

63
 Talk hurts from where it spurts, 
5064
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64
one of them says.
63
attribution

65
 The clash of ideologies survives this treatment,
5066
Contrast

66
 but the nuance and richness of Gorky's individual characters have vanished in the scuffle. 
5066
Contrast

67
As for the humor 
5067
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68
that Gorky's text provides, 
67
elaboration-object-attribute-e

69
when repainted in such broad strokes 
5068
span

70
(particularly by the lesser members of the ensemble) 
69
elaboration-additional-e

71
it looks and sounds forced.
5070
Same-Unit

72
 Ms. Bogart does better with music than with words 
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73
when she wants, 
5076
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74
as she so often does want,
73
elaboration-additional-e

75
 to express herself through Gorky's helpless play. 
5077
Same-Unit

76
Here she has the aid of her longtime associate Jeff Helpern, 
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whom she appointed Trinity's first-ever musical director 
5078
List

78
and whom she equipped with a spanking new $60,000 sound system and recording studio.
5078
List

79
 For Gorky, Mr. Helpern provided an aural collage of Debussy and Rachmaninoff, 
5081
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80
which is less a score than a separate character with a distinct point of view.
79
interpretation-s-e

81
 Like Brecht, and indeed Ezra Pound, Ms. Bogart has said 
5086
attribution

82
that her intent in such manipulative staging of the classics is simply an attempt 
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83
to make it new. 
82
elaboration-object-attribute-e

84
Indeed, during a recent post-production audience discussion, the director explained 
5088
attribution

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that her fondest artistic wish was to find a way 
5087
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86
to play Somewhere Over the Rainbow 
85
elaboration-object-attribute-e

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so that the song's original beauty comes through, surmounting the cliche.
5087
purpose

88
 The danger 
5091
span

89
that Ms. Bogart seems to be courting here 
88
elaboration-object-attribute-e

90
is one of obfuscation rather than rejuvenation, a vision so at odds with the playwright's 
5095
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91
that the two points of view nullify, 
5093
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92
rather than illuminate, 
91
preference-e

93
each other.
5094
Same-Unit

94
 Ms. Bogart's cast is part and parcel of the problem.
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95
 Ed Shea and Barbara Orson never find a real reason for their love affair as the foolish, idealistic young Vass and the tirelessly humanitarian doctor Maria Lvovna.
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List

96
 Cynthia Strickland as the long-suffering Varvara is a tiresome whiner, not the inspirational counterrevolutionary 
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Gorky intended.
96
elaboration-object-attribute-e

98
 Better to look in the corners for performances 
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99
that inspire or amuse.
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elaboration-object-attribute-e

100
 Janice Duclos, 
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in addition to possessing one of the evening's more impressive vocal instruments,
100
elaboration-additional-e

102
 brings an unsuspected comedic touch to her role of Olga, everybody's favorite mom.
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Same-Unit

103
 Marni Rice plays the maid with so much edge 
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span

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as to steal her two scenes.
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consequence-s

105
 But it is the Trinity Rep newcomer, Jonathan Fried 
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(Zamislov, the paralegal) 
105
elaboration-additional-e

107
who is the actor to watch, 
5108
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whether he is hamming it up 
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while conducting the chamber musicians 
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temporal-same-time

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or seducing his neighbor's wife 
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(Becca Lish) 
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restatement-e

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by licking her bosom.
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means

113
 Ms. de Vries writes frequently about theater.
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