In a rare return to legitimate theater, John Malkovich is onstage at Steppenwolf Theatre Company (he's an original ensemble member) in Lost Land, a world premiere by British playwright Stephen Jeffreys. Malkovich and Jeffreys have partnered before on Jeffreys' historic drama The Libertine, set in Restoration England. Lost Land also uses history as a hook, this time Hungarian history at the end of World War I. However, Jeffreys is far more indebted -- sometimes self-consciously so -- to Anton Chekhov and Bernard Shaw than he is to history. Driven by characters and ideas rather than story, Lost Land puts its obvious literary pedigree center stage.

The hero is Count Kristof (Malkovich), a midd[...]