{"id":30167,"date":"2015-10-19T10:18:47","date_gmt":"2015-10-19T16:18:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/?p=30167"},"modified":"2018-09-25T16:24:41","modified_gmt":"2018-09-25T22:24:41","slug":"plan-b-nova-present-spellbinding-kreutzer-sonata","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/plan-b-nova-present-spellbinding-kreutzer-sonata\/","title":{"rendered":"Plan-B, NOVA Present Spellbinding “Kreutzer Sonata”"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"20151013-PlanB_KreutzerSonata-315\"<\/a>

Violinist Kathryn Eberle, pianist Jason Hardink and actor Robert Scott Smith in Eric Samuelsen’s “The Kreutzer Sonata.”<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Pozdnyshev did it in the conservatory with a knife.<\/p>\n

We learn that much early on in \u201cThe Kreutzer Sonata,\u201d Eric Samuelsen\u2019s world-premiere one-act play, a superb adaptation (and condensation) of Tolstoy\u2019s 1889 novella about murder and madness.<\/p>\n

Combined with a spellbinding performance of much of Beethoven\u2019s Violin Sonata No. 9 (the \u201cKreutzer\u201d), this hour-long production was the season opener for both Plan-B Theatre Company and the NOVA Chamber Music Series on Sunday night.<\/p>\n

Under the direction of Plan-B Artistic Director Jerry Rapier, three performers \u2013 two musicians and an actor \u2013 all interact brilliantly (by utterly ignoring one another), and deliver the essence of Samuelson\u2019s script with a ferocity that demonstrates pure passion for what they are doing.<\/p>\n

Passion is a key word here. Robert Scott Smith holds the stage with a passionate, heated explanation of how his wife\u2019s passion for music, and his suspicions that she holds a similar passion for her fellow performer, led him to murder her; how his youthful passion for brothels and profligacy lasted until he was 30, at which point he sought out an innocent woman who was worthy of him to marry; how his passion for her in a particular dress initially led him to \u201cbuy\u201d her from her mother (he ultimately \u201conly knew her as an animal,\u201d he maintains); how the passion inherent in the Kreutzer Sonata meant it should not be performed in a room filled with women wearing low-cut dresses; it goes on and on. He is mad, of course.<\/p>\n

Marvelously acted, Smith flips his long coat-tails as he sits down, talking about how music has \u201csuch a mysterious power.\u201d He is sometimes most emotive when he stands silent, back to the audience, arms akimbo or hands in pockets, precisely conveying what he is feeling.<\/p>\n

And the music \u2013 it is wonderfully passionate as well. Performed beautifully by the very lovely Kathryn Eberle on violin, associate concertmaster of the Utah Symphony, and Jason Hardink, pianist and artistic director of NOVA Chamber Music Series and Principal Symphony Keyboard of the Utah Symphony (who also conceived of this singular production) \u2013 it was chilling to be so close to such exquisite players in the intimacy of the black box theater.<\/p>\n

Because they are playing for Utah Opera\u2019s \u201cTosca,\u201d performances of this play are on an unusual Sunday and Monday night schedule.<\/p>\n

As an audience member noted (and I had earlier written down, ahem!) the two musicians looked startlingly like the 1901 Prinet painting, \u201cKreutzer Sonata,\u201d inspired by the novella. One kept waiting for the passionate embrace. Never happened, except in the murderer\u2019s vivid imagination.<\/p>\n

\"Prinet_-_Kreutzer_Sonata\"<\/a>

Rene Francois Xavier Prinet’s 1901 “Kreutzer Sonata” was used for years in Tabu perfume advertisements.<\/p><\/div>\n

The period costumes by Philip R. Lowe were perfection \u2013 Eberle\u2019s sparkling dress a stunner. Jesse Portillo\u2019s lighting was, as always, just as it should be. Randy Rasmussen\u2019s sets, ever minimal and excellent (as in this case) rated a must-read story in Sunday\u2019s Salt Lake Tribune<\/em>.<\/p>\n

At a talk after the performance, Russian literature scholar Thomas Rogers said, interestingly, that someone called Tolstoy\u2019s novella \u201ca gargoyle on the cathedral of \u2018Anna Karenina.\u2019\u201d And, as Rogers added, \u201cthey have a similar theme.\u201d Playwright Samuelsen pointed to the women\u2019s issues in the play: domestic violence, for one. He also said he believed it was the wife\u2019s choice to pursue an interest of her own, rather than suspected infidelity, that enraged the husband in his play.<\/p>\n

It was the sexual content, not terribly evident in this script, that got \u201cThe Kreutzer Sonata\u201d banned by censors in Russia and by the U.S. Attorney General in 1890.<\/p>\n

A magnificently conceived and performed evening of theater, this is highly recommended.<\/p>\n

Plan-B Theatre and NOVA Chamber Music Series \u201cThe Kreutzer Sonata\u201d runs Sundays and Mondays at 7 p.m. through Nov. 9. The run is sold out at Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center, 138 W. 300 South, Salt Lake City, but a performance has been added Sunday, Nov. 8, at 4 p.m.\u00a0 info: planbtheatre.org<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Pozdnyshev did it in the conservatory with a knife. We learn that much early on in \u201cThe Kreutzer Sonata,\u201d Eric Samuelsen\u2019s world-premiere one-act play, a superb adaptation (and condensation) of Tolstoy\u2019s 1889 novella about murder and madness. Combined with a spellbinding performance of much of Beethoven\u2019s Violin […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":844,"featured_media":30171,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_piecal_is_event":false,"_piecal_start_date":"","_piecal_end_date":"","_piecal_is_allday":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[69,34,36],"tags":[1836,1727,2336,1726,1624,1151],"class_list":["post-30167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-bytes","category-performing-arts","category-theatre","tag-eric-samuelsen","tag-jason-hardink","tag-kathryn-eberle","tag-nova-chamber-music-series","tag-plan-b-theatre-company","tag-robert-scott-smith"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/20151013-PlanB_KreutzerSonata-315.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-17 13:08:02","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/844"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30167"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30167\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38439,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30167\/revisions\/38439"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}