Review by Grace Swadling
“Life’s hard, and then it ends.”
This could be a summation of a lot of Anton Chekhov’s work but none more so than ‘Three Sisters’, one of Chekhov’s most celebrated plays, first performed in 1901.
In a sleepy provincial town sisters Olga, Masha, and Irina dream of a life of excitement, freedom and meaning. All they have to do is move home to Moscow. Instead, they find themselves trapped in a suffocating house where time seems to stand still and their youthful dreams of love, excitement, and freedom gradually fizzle.
Victor Kalka’s adaptation of Three Sisters, presented by Virginia Plain Theatre, is a re-working that impressively condenses four acts into two and brings the world of the sisters into the modern age. Kalka manages to retain the narrative arc without sacrificing any of the thematic throughlines of longing, ambition and despair. Taking this play out of its 1900s setting was sometimes at odds with the larger picture of the world at play but the thread of existentialist dread running throughout grounded the production, tying in to its original predecessor.
Kalka has assembled a strong cast to bring this adaptation to life and there were some beautiful moments between the characters. From the beginning of the show, where audiences are privy to private moments between characters as they enter the theatre, this production invites audiences to a world falling apart at the seams but one in which people go on living regardless.
Although this was heavily directed as an ensemble piece, the intimate scenes between two characters were when this production really settled and the actors were much more grounded. Nicola Denton, Sarah Greenwood and Meg Bennetts created real sisterly affection (and frustration) throughout the piece. Denton’s portrayal of Irina from wide-eyed and hopeful dreamer to world-weary worker who accepts that everything has been taken from her was an incredibly believable transformation and was lovely to watch. Greenwood’s Masha was both hollow-eyed and fiercely frenetic, and her ache to feel alive again and the subsequent relationship with the new Lieutenant Colonel (played by Alex Bryant-Smith with palpable chemistry) was engaging to watch play out.
The whole ensemble worked well in their roles, although notable stand-outs include Joseph Tanti’s wonderfully grounded portrayal of lovelorn soldier Nikolaj, Barry French’s eccentric yet inappropriate and melancholic Dr Ivan, Jessie Lancaster's villanious yummy mummy Natasha and Ciaran O’Riordan’s brief but wildly unhinged appearance as the disconcerting Captain Solyony.
The technical elements of this production worked excellently together; Jasmin Borsovszky’s lighting design was engaging and allowed for private conversations to take place in the much larger ensemble scenes. Patrick Howard’s sound design was both a key indication of modernism (the opening notes of a familiar Mariah Carey Christmas tune provided a wonderful comedic moment) whilst also reinforcing the themes of longing for the past and for home.
The set design was cleverly utilised to draw the audience into the family home by having only two real walls, and was sparse enough and realistic enough to reveal the stagnant and depressing nature of their unrealised dreams. However, one of the highlights of this production came in Act 2 when a set change lost the "realism" of the previous scenes and moved to an outdoor setting. Greenwood’s Masha trying to submerge herself in 1 inch of water in a paddling pool whilst Matthew Abotomey’s Andre maniacally pushed around an obviously-not real baby was such a compelling moment - if the production had leaned into this playful imagery more in Act 1, this would have really added an extra layer and given the cast more to sink their teeth in to.
The trope of "in Moscow things will be better" felt overplayed but was done so with purpose. This production did an excellent job of highlighting nostalgia as a trap - even if they were to return, the Moscow the sisters remember can not exist because they are not the same people that lived in that Moscow. The subsequent consequences of the sister’s hope dying out asks audiences to grapple with their own struggle between dreams and reality and emphasizes Chekhov's portrait of the need for endurance in the face of dashed hopes.
