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:

13 August 2003

Chekhov seems to be travelling in pairs nowadays. No sooner have not one but two Seagulls flown in to Chichester and the Edinburgh Festival just days apart from each other (See News, 11 Aug 2003), than the same August week has also brought London its second set of Three Sisters of the year.

Seeing the Edinburgh production of The Seagull and the National's new Three Sisters on consecutive nights, however, is to find oneself overwhelmed not only by the Chekhovian gloom that inevitably envelops both plays, but also by the intensity of feeling amidst the languor. To see one great Chekhov production a year is a rare treat; to see two in a row is a feast. So I have now supped full and intensely on languid misery and crushed hopes.

Both Peter Stein in Edinburgh and Katie Mitchell in this London Three Sisters take their time. These productions aren't for theatregoers in a hurry, since each cloc...

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Latest User Review

USER: Whatsonstage.com (195.144.130.1) - 10 October 2003:

A five-star evening most of the way. Katie Mitchell's production, like her earlier Chekhov work, is full of meticulous fine-brush work. She finds so much in the text. Excellent performances, some of them quite outstanding I felt. The set was breathtaking in its realism (great rain! great snow!), and the atmospheric lighting chimed in with the whole. For me the problem was Act 3, in the bedroom, where the decision to dispense with Chekhov's stage directions involving screens combined with the excessive width of the wide-screen stage to dilute the impact of what is usuallt the strongest scene in the play. I was troubled that Chebutykin addressed his drunken tirade directly to Olga. I didn't believe that. But a great event for the most part. Job...

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