Three Sisters

Synopsis

Stranded in a remote provincial town, three sisters dream of returning to the Moscow of their youth. When a military garrison arrives nearby,the officers become their guests and suddenly a new life seems to be within reach. Liaisons develop, love is in the air and hopes run high - but the sisters reckon without the weakness of their brother, the grasping ambitions of his wife, and the strange eccentricities of a certain lieutenant. An explosion is brewing and matters come to a head on a frantic night of fire.

Our Review:

Michael Coveney - 26 January 2010

"Hope, despair, vodka," says the poster, and there’s no messing about in the production, either, which marks another fascinating collaboration between director Sean Holmes and Filter, “deconstructing” Chekhov’s classic in the wake of revealingly messy anatomisations of Brecht’s Caucasian Chalk Circle and Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night.

Three Sisters, using Christopher Hampton’s supple and witty text, from a translation by Vera Liber, is no less provocative, but far less satisfying than either of those projects; you never feel churned up by the play - that’s not on the agenda - and the actors leave no room for melancholy or a deepening sense of futility.

It’s wham, bang, thank you ma’am, very fast, the final scene played by the sisters with almost bizarre stoicism: Romola Garai’s haunted, emaciated Masha, Poppy Miller’s prim stick of an Olga and Clare Dunne’s Irish...

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Latest User Review

Gina - 12 March 2010:

Was it Bernard Shaw who once wrote of some poor pianist 'X played at the Wigmore Hall last night. Why?' The same goes for this production seen at the Playhouse in Oxford. Utterly unconvincing. Most disturbing was Garai as Masha - irritating and unbelievable. Odd, since she was captivating on screen (especially in I Capture the Castle). Also, just could not quite handle the overwhelming Irishness of Irina, even though the lack of coherent direction should have allowed anything. Left at half time to find some vodka....

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