The Overcoat. Photo: Clare Hawley
There were absolutely no signs of sibling rivalry when talented Costi siblings Rosemarie, Constantine and Michael joined forces to create an entertaining adaptation of Nikolai Gogol’s 1842 short story The Overcoat which premieres at Belvoir St Theatre tonight.
Rosemarie worked on the music, Michael on the lyrics and Constantine directed this dark musical comedy about an office worker’s ill-fated attempt to find a sense of belonging in a lonely city. “Luckily we were all working towards the same goal,” Constantine said.
The talented Costi siblings, Michael, Rosemary and Constantine
The short story by the Russian absurdist novelist and playwright first caught Constantine’s attention when he read it in high school. “It had a real impact on me. Gogol conveys the world as completely absurd but somehow real. The most absurd thing is the truth. You couldn’t make it up,” he said.
If this theme sounds familiar in the Trumpian era of “alternative facts” and claims that “truth is not truth”, it’s a case of serendipity rather than a conscious choice. There are many other accidental similarities including Nikolai’s decision, after an embarrassing exchange with a colleague, to sell everything he owns to buy an overcoat in a bid to change his life.
“Nikolai is a clerk and a social outsider – perpetually uncomfortable in his skin,” Constantine says. “The problem with buying clothing to create a sense of identity [like the Trumpian MAGA red hats] is that you feel good temporarily and get a sugar rush, but it’s only a temporary fix.“
The Overcoat is set in the busy city streets of St Petersburg, as seen through Nikolai’s eyes, an imagined city inspired by Russian avant-garde art and film of the 1920s. The city pulses to the rhythm of a Russian jazz trio.
“There is something extremely relevant about The Overcoat. Today, we are more disconnected from each other than ever, climbing bureaucratic ladders to nowhere, and much like Nikolai, we slip through cracks and seek solace in objects and comforts we can’t afford in the hope they give us purpose,” said Constantine.
But while the work’s theme is eerily relevant today the work has not been updated for a modern context. “Keeping it in the past provides a historical perspective. As a wise man said ‘ history has a lot of lessons but no students’.” Or as Aldous Huxley puts it: “ That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons of history.”
Photo: Clare Hawley
“Gogol writes rhythmic and evocative visual imagery that keeps shifting so jazz, for instance, is great for this, “ Constantine said. “And there’s an operatic scale to this piece about a small person with an extraordinarily large inner life. The best way to convey that is with music.”
The work features a cast of four led by actor and musician Charles Wu as Nikolai with Laura Bunting, Kate Cheel and Aaron Tsindos, and a band consisting of piano, saxophone, and double bass, ( Sarah Evans, Tate Sheridan and Josh Willard) performing music composed by Rosemarie Costi.
“The songs and music draw on a combination of traditional Russian folk tunes and bebop jazz,” Rosemary said. “Gogol’s writing has an innate lyricism as his characters scurry about trading office gossip and scandals. Typewriters, the tailor’s sewing machine, and the howling Russian wind all provide inspiration to the soundtrack inside Nikolai’s mind.”
The Costi siblings promise audiences a “surreal and heartbreaking but very funny rollicking musical journey about a person who is usually ignored, the kind of person you would pass in the street and not look at twice” .
“It has a great band, a great cast of Sydney’s most exciting young actors and fabulous original music written for its 35 scenes. All in all it will be a moving and entertaining night out,” Constantine said.
The Overcoat opens at 25A, Downstairs Theatre, Belvoir St Theatre, 25 Belvoir Street, Surry Hills tonight and plays until December 1.
