From April 9 to 18, the Auburn University Department of Theatre and Dance put on a production of "Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike" on the Black Box stage in the Telfair Peet Theatre. Serving as the final performance of the Department's 2025-26 season, the play was a send-off for the senior actors and a demonstration of up-and-coming freshman talent.
The show follows a trio of middle-aged siblings. Vanya and the adopted sibling Sonia live together in an old house that belonged to their parents, with the plot beginning on the morning of their third sibling Masha's return. Masha, an actress, has brought along a young fellow actor named Spike, who acts as her partner. Over the course of the play, the older sibling trio contemplates the importance of a life well lived, and the pain of a life that was not.
The Black Box stage used for the performance made for a more personal experience, allowing the audience to be even more invested in each individual actor’s performance. Every seat in the house is at or near the same level as the actors, meaning that every minute detail of their performances was on full display.
Throughout the play, the actors often paused for multiple seconds to account for the audience’s laughter. Bebi Rai, Auburn alumnus and audience member, particularly enjoyed the show's usage of character interaction in its messaging.
“The play is able to mix the characters together, bending them in a wonderful way that helps with how the plot forms," Rai said. "It’s very interesting, and I found the message very interesting as well with Masha’s speech near the end and the ideas of generations being disconnected and disillusioned.”
The play was assembled quickly, with only a few weeks between the first rehearsals and the opening performance.
“We have auditions around a month or two before rehearsals, and from there, we have a week or two of table-reading," said Reid Williams, senior in music theatre who played the role of Spike. "... The director tells us what we have to do with our characters, and from there, we have around a week of stage rehearsal where the director showed us how to block the scenes. ... From there, it was mostly tech up until the first performance.”
Despite being a 2 hour, 10 minute play, "Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike" is only comprised of six total scenes, with the first act made of two and the second made of four. Without action and musical numbers, each scene is almost entirely extended conversation, and this unique duration leads to each individual scene being much longer than a usual theatre scene.
“It’s a strange play. Once you’re in it for so long, you stop noticing how strange it is, and you start just playing along, playing it straight," said Harrison Dunn, senior double majoring in theatre and film and the actor of Vanya. "Doctor Scott taught us all of the blocking, and he emphasized that a pause must be earned by telling a joke or doing something interesting. It’s an insane script really.”
The Department of Theatre and Dance puts on multiple shows every semester. Three shows slated for the upcoming 2026-27 season are "Men in Boats," "The Revolutionists" and "Ride the Cyclone."
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Foster Mayhall, a freshman currently undeclared in engineering, is from Dothan, Alabama. He has been with The Auburn Plainsman since the spring of 2026.
