Is Anton Chekhov Is a Tasty Snack drowning in self-referential layers? It takes Anton Chekhov’s artist-skewering play The Seagull, stages it by a nameless Texan theatre company, and directly addresses the audience’s viewing experience at Penfold Theatre. That type of meta commentary creates narrative minefields. It could end up in fractured sections whose discordance ruins the entire experience. Luckily, Jenny Connell Davis’ script messes with meaning beautifully, every wink and nod working in harmony.
At the root of that harmony lies a ragtag fictional production company. Initial musical plans have fallen through due to funding issues – which sounds more than a little familiar in this day and age – and the Director (Ryan Crowder) has subbed in a stripped-down Seagull production. Cue over a year of exasperating rehearsals, line squabbles, swapped script translations, and whiplash from the Director’s changing vision. Behold the little frustrations of working with others. This is theatre cringe comedy in the vein of The Office. Anyone who has ever participated better buckle up, because you’re in for a bumpy ride.
The cast tropes abound in name and deed. Crowder’s Director reeks of artifice under a suave exterior. He swans about with a musical but untrustworthy tone, and watching him flail while managing the unruly company took a while to fully appreciate. He pits members against each other, balancing the Diva’s (Helen Merino) neediness in the wake of a dimming TV star against the Ingenue’s (Abigail Bensman) hopeful rise, and her willingness to do anything for her fledgling career. Those two women create their own little All About Eve, cattily circling and sniping throughout the rehearsal process, breaking down and lashing out.
This is theatre cringe comedy in the vein of The Office.
Collateral damage hits the Dramaturg (Diego Arroyo Aceves), whose love of Russian literature and inability to resist the lure of the theatre – or the Ingenue – reels him deeper into the world of madness. It’s a pleasure seeing Aceves slowly die inside as the actors and director blatantly disrespect the source material. And like always, the long-suffering Stage Manager (a riveting Gabrielle Smith) would just like people to do their work, please and thank you. She holds this troupe together through disbelieving glances, incessant shade, and unabashed bulldozing over the Director’s impropriety. Those two theatre lovers create their own special dynamic, bonding over a shared appreciation of the art form. They both shine in a four-minute summary of The Seagull, performed to educate the clueless Ingenue. Penfold, please record and release that scene snippet. After that magnificent display, I am in this world with you. I’m sold. I want to watch it on loop for the next 10 years. Release the Stage Manager cut!
Real-life stage manager Stephanie Delk, along with director Liz Fisher, makes amazing use of Penfold Theatre itself as a setting. Characters use aisles and walkways as exactly what they are: the actual spaces a troupe would use to show how they exist in and around a stage. Special mention must be made of the scenic transitions. They’re handled with a rarely seen level of fun. No boring fade to black here. This pretend company may not have been able to produce the musical they originally wanted, but during transitions they get the chance to dance, adding flair to the utilitarian clearing of props and resetting of the stage. Using sound bites from Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet and the Killers, each piece kept momentum moving between scenes, allowing for emotion and audience investment to continue. Merino’s Diva would be so proud. A company holding on to the world they’ve built! How alluring.
Anton Chekhov Is a Tasty Snack is a tasty morsel itself, a biting satire with a warm, gooey heart at the center. After all, you’ve got to intensely love something to skewer it so well. And hey, thanks for the in-play nod to this town having “theatre critics that actually like theatre.” I do! I really, truly do. And Snack explains why.
Anton Chekhov Is a Tasty Snack
Penfold Theatre, Round Rock
Through June 28
This article appears in June 20 • 2025.
