The Good Doctor

The stories of Chekhov get a quirky twist in the stage production from master playwright Neil Simon.

In Sandra Bates' final production for the Ensemble Theatre she has picked a playful cast to perform this montage of madness. Adriano Cappelletta charms the pants off the audience in his role as chief storyteller and protagonist in many of the tales — at times holding our hand, at other moments making us cringe. Particularly impressive are his persistence in lothario tactics to steal a man's wife and his touching father-son sexual education baton passing at the doors to a brothel.

The actors carry the patchwork of roles with vigour and the pace treads evenly across, allowing for enough pause between quick-witted quips and more physical theatrics. After a shaky start in a skit about an overblown sneeze, Nathan Wilson steps up to conquer his array of characters. Special mention to his work in The Dentist — a centrepiece of the production — where he plays a maniacal young medical student raring to rip out a bothersome tooth in from the mouth of his concerned client.

Meanwhile, Lenore Smith shines across her roles, commanding special strength, attention, and laughs as a feeble old woman she puts the ill in shrill as she begs a bank clerk to reimburse her redundant husband's funds. And Chloe Bayliss switches from being adorably naive as a spineless governess to being clever and sizzling as a curious wife who outsmarts a player at his own sexually deviant game.

The ornate wooden set — part house, part church — is the backdrop hinting to the old upstairs/downstairs mentality of an old Russia, gradually being erased by the rise of class consciousness. The second half of The Good Doctor takes us close to the edge of tragicomedic glory — but stops short of pushing us over.