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Sisters Sonia and Masha are bemoaning their fate. "I haven't lived," Sonia laments. "My life is over," Masha counters. The two compete to outdo each other as their angst escalates melodramatically and their brother, Vanya, alternately yells at them and tries to comfort them.

"Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike," Christopher Durang's quirky comedy of manners, gives Anton Chekhov's plays a contemporary spin in a delightfully droll production that just opened at Wasatch Theatre Company.

Durang describes the play as "putting Chekhov themes and characters in a blender in America at the present time," Brian Pilling tells us in his director's notes. There are references to all four Chekhov plays: "The Seagull," "Uncle Vanya," "The Three Sisters" and "The Cherry Orchard." But you don't have to know Chekhov to appreciate the frustration and ennui that pervade these characters' lives. It simply sharpens the humor if you do.

The play is set in the screened-in morning room of a country house in Bucks County, Penn., "where amity and enmity intermingle." Michael Rideout's set with its slightly seedy wicker furniture gives the production a comfortable, homey feeling as Vanya (Jeffrey Owen) and Sonia (Karrie Ann Ogilvie) share coffee and complaints about their empty lives. "I need a change, but nothing ever changes," Sonia whines wistfully while Vanya observes, "Sonia and I are just two lumps on a log. We forgot to make a life for ourselves."

But things do change when their sister, Masha (Cathy Ostler), imperiously sweeps in and drags them off to a costume party. She left for a career in classical theater but ended up the heroine of a series of "Sexy Killer" films. "I can't help it if I'm beautiful, intelligent, famous and successful," she announces. Her much-younger boyfriend, Spike (Allen Smith), preens and poses. "Why does he take his clothes off so much?" Vanya asks. "I figure, if you've got it, flaunt it," Spike boasts.

Meanwhile the housekeeper, Cassandra (Kathryn Wilkins), keeps popping in prophesying doom, and a naïve young neighbor, Nina (Ashlyn Brooke Anderson), tries to help by contributing optimistic aphorisms like "Life is wonderful … full of promises ahead."

Durang keeps a steady stream of clever banter flowing, although the second act is too long. And the play makes some pithy comments about the hollowness of contemporary life. It's refreshing to see Durang can be funny without his normal aftertaste of biting satire, but "Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike" is decidedly lightweight. It's difficult to understand how the play won all the major 2013 theater awards.

The cast is uniformly entertaining, and Owens does especially well with a long, nostalgic speech in the second act where he rhapsodizes on the simple joys of the days when people licked stamps and watched "Howdy Doody" instead of twittering and tweeting on their cellphones. "There are no more shared memories anymore; our lives are disconnected," he laments.

Pilling's direction is even and perceptive. Danny Dunn's lighting is upbeat and sunny, and Michael Nielsen's costumes are perfectly attuned to the personalities of the characters who wear them.

"Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike" introduces us to some interesting characters, and Durang keeps the laughs coming. Its portrait of a group of misfit characters trying to jump-start their lives is a lively antidote to the January doldrums. —

New spin on Chekhov

"Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike" is consistently funny and makes some pithy comments about contemporary American life without becoming nasty or bitter.

When • Reviewed Jan 7; plays Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m., through Jan. 30, with 2 p.m. matinees on Jan. 23 and 30

Where • Studio Theatre at the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center, 138 W. Broadway, Salt Lake City

Tickets • $15; 801-355-ARTS or artsaltlake.org for tickets and wasatchtheatre.org for more information; contains adult language

Running time • Two hours and 15 minutes (including an intermission)