Three Sisters - Stratford Shakespeare Festival
Director Martha Henry and Writer Susan Coyne revisit Anton Chekhov
Sep 12, 2009
In this infectiously insular age of Twitter and Facebook, the face-to-face social interaction is highly refreshing in this Chekhov dramedy adapted by Susan Coyne of TV's Slings and Arrows, and Canada's Soulpepper Theatre. Three Sisters is the story of the once aristocratic Prozorov family and their social circle, who nightly “philosophise” about life, work, family, love and the changing political landscape in provincial Russia at the turn of the century
Like a fly on the wall, the audience is welcomed into the lives of Prozorov sisters Olga, (Irene Poole) Irina, (Dalal Badr) Masha, (Lucy Peacock) and oldest brother Andrei (Gordon S. Miller) originally from Moscow, who have been enduring small town life due to their father’s military assignment, as brigade general, 11 years prior. A year after their father’s death, the girls aim to sell the house and return to the former glory of high society life in Russia's capital.
Co stars Tom McCamus, James Blendick, Peter Hutt, Juan Chioran, Sean Arbuckle, Joyce Campion and Kelli Fox.
As the play opens, on verteran designer John Pennoyer's lavish set, youngest sibling Irina, celebrating her name day, has big plans to work in Moscow sick of " work without poetry, work without thought." Oldest sibling Olga, is tired of life as a high school teacher, ("I have felt my strength and my youth oozing away from me every day") and also needs to re charge in the big city. Though middle sibling Masha is married to the elderly Kulygin, (Peter Hutt) she will visit in the summer. All three women believe brother Andrei’s on the fast track to be becoming a university professor, as they pin their hopes and dreams on his assured acedemic success.
For the present, the girls make the best of rural humdrum with lifelong servant Anfisa, (Joyce Campion) and old family friend / father figure Dr Chebutykin (James Blendick) as they regularly entertain a variety of young soldiers from town, including the eccentric outspoken Solyony (Juan Chioran). ("If a man philosophises, there will be philosophy or sophistry, anyway, but if a woman philosophises, or two do it, then it will be so much twiddle-twaddle!")
Masha and Vershinin, Irina and Tuzenbach, Andrei and Natasha
Unlike Olga and Irina, Masha has more reason to stay in town, secretly in love with the dashing, mercurial, but very married, Lt. Colonel Vershinin (Tom McCamus) “Something vast is coming towards us…” pontificates another Prozorov house regular /army lieutenant Baron Tuzenbach, (Sean Arbuckle) who is secretly in love with Irina. To impress her, Tuzenbach plans to get a regular job and give up his military career.
Andrei meets the initially shy, socially awkward, village girl Natasha (Kelli Fox), introduces her to his sisters at Irina’s name day dinner, and unknowingly brings about monumental change for everyone in the household when Natasha becomes Andrei’s wife. Many familial hopes and dreams are replaced by cold, hard, reality as a series of catastrophic events occur that leave the sisters Prozorov asking the philosophical question - “If we only knew why we lived and why we suffered… if we only knew?
Director Martha Henry's Production Top Notch
Like Samuel Beckett, and Harold Pinter, Anton Chekhov plays are as much about what is unspoken, as what is said aloud. For those who savour the complex character layers of Chekhov, treat yourself!
This production is a joy to watch featuring the Festival’s finest actors in a potent ensemble cast masterfully directed by Martha Henry. Henry, who has played Olga (Stratford 1976) and Masha (Manitoba Theatre Centre 1967-68), says she’s had this play 'in her bones for 45 years."
Don't miss Three Sisters by Anton Chekhov, directed by Martha Henry, at The Tom Patterson Theatre, The Stratford Shakespeare Festival to Oct 3
