Chekhov Lizardbrain

It'll shame me until the next time Pig Iron Theatre performs, but I attended Chekhov Lizardbrain while in a bit of a sickly fugue, and so I only caught bits and pieces of what seemed to be a complex and beautiful amalgamation of Chekhov's Three Sisters (reimagined as three brothers) and a humanizing study of autism. I can say with certainty that James Sugg gives an absolutely captivating deadpan, and that Dan Rothenberg's direction comes across as vaudeville by way of Michel Gondry--that's a huge compliment to the powers of this production's scenic creativity. It's a convoluted production, too, with each character doubling (much as Dmitri's personality is split) between characters in the Chekhovian world, and ones in the modern day, not to mention their own redirection of the play itself as they seize control--a symbolic example of an autistic fit. I wish I'd focused better on the moments, packed as they were with imagry and fine acting, but I can only really remark on how energetic the whole production was, like a world locked in on itself.