‘Anton’ brings satire to Western Stage

SALINAS
– Jane Martin’s satire of American theatre,
”
Anton in Show Business,
”
playing through Sept. 20 in the studio theater, Hartnell College
Performing Arts Center, continues The Western Stage’s 2003
season.
SALINAS – Jane Martin’s satire of American theatre, “Anton in Show Business,” playing through Sept. 20 in the studio theater, Hartnell College Performing Arts Center, continues The Western Stage’s 2003 season.

When a small regional theatre in Auston, Texas, tries to mount a production of Anton Chekhov’s “The Three Sisters” as a vehicle for a TV sitcom star trying to legitimize her career, the complications that ensue paint a disturbing portrait of the current state of American drama.

Martin spares no one in this scathing satire. She populates her play with every stereotypical character in the contemporary theatre: the over educated artistic director with degrees from Harvard and Yale, the eager community actress, the jaded sponsor with ties to the tobacco industry, the eccentric guest director, and a disgruntled dramaturge who continually stops the show to complain about theatrical aesthetics.

Through this bizarre ensemble of characters, Anton in Show Business examines whether the American theatre can survive the financial pressures and celebrity cult of contemporary society and still manage to tell a simple story about the human condition.

The form Jane Martin uses in Anton in Show Business is also a critique on the theatre. She subverts the artifice of theatre by creating a self-reflexive dialogue where the characters comment on the show while performing it. Characters routinely break the fourth wall and talk directly to the audience to comment on the action taking place on stage. This creates a meta theatrical event reminiscent of Louigi Pirandello’s Six Characters in Search of an Author where they play comments on itself. 

In addition, Martin demands an all female cast, playing the roles of men and women, to satirize the male dominance of theatre. As Kate, the artistic director of this fictitious theatre, comments, “Ninety percent of the role in theatre are written for men.”

Martin’s unique convention draws attention to this disparity, and offers a play that simultaneously comments and rebels against this male dominance.

Tickets are now on sale. Season subscriptions are still the best bargain, available for as little as $12 per performance.

Go to WesternStage.com for complete information or call (831) 755-6816. “Anton in Show Business” plays Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m.