THE HANGOVER REPORT – Sarah Gancher’s RUSSIAN TROLL FARM takes on a different cadence onstage and at our current juncture

Haskell King, John Lavelle, Christine Lahti, Renata Friedman, and Hadi Tabbal in Vineyard Theatre’s production of “Russian Troll Farm: A Workplace Comedy” by Sarah Gancher (photo by Carol Rosegg).

Last night, Sarah Gancher’s Russian Troll Farm: A Workplace Comedy opened Off-Broadway at the Vineyard Theatre (in a co-production with Rochester’s Geva Theatre Center). It’s not the first time for me to see the play; I had previously seen a streaming format of it during the dark days of the pandemic. Then, I thought the work was one of the more successful examples of online theater – a very funny St. Petersburg-set romp about a government sanctioned “troll farm” where analysts spent day and night weaponizing social media against the United States for the benefit of the Russian government.

So how does it translate to an in-person experience, especially at our current junction? Well, it’s taken on a different cadence. Given that the play takes place during the months leading up to the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election, the work right off the bat seems a tad out of sync with current events (e.g., we are gearing up for another election cycle, after all). Nevertheless, play’s depiction of Russia’s disruption of that election through the relentless generation of fake news – as well as its strangely elegiac reminiscences of the old Soviet system – are fascinating subjects and make for a pointed political satire. What comes off a little less potently are the human office politics, which seem to take more of the spotlight this time around. Unfortunately, Gancher takes a formulaic approach to character development and relationships which reguster a tad more heavy-handededly live onstage.

The production marks the welcome return of director Darko Tresnjak (a deserved Tony-winner for helming the award-winning musical A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder) to the New York theater scene. Although he’s given Gancher’s play a slick, broadly comic staging, the work actually naturally lends itself to a screen-based presentation. As such, I missed the intimacy and under-the-radar renegadism afforded by its former online form. As for the performances, they’re solid all around. Led by Emmy and Oscar-winner Christine Lahti, they acquit themselves admirably in playing characters that come across more like archetypes than they do fully fleshed out creations.

RECOMMENDED

RUSSIAN TROLL FARM
Off-Broadway, Play
Vineyard Theatre
1 hour, 45 minutes (without an intermission)
Through February 25

Categories: Off-Broadway, Theater

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