THREE SISTERS Comes to Classical Theatre Company

The Classical Theatre Company will wrap up its 17th Season with the master of early modern drama, Anton Chekhov, in his stirring family drama, Three Sisters. The play focuses on the three Prozorov sisters, Olga, Masha, and Irina, whose military officer father died one year prior.

Nearly one thousand miles away from their beloved Moscow, the sisters live in virtual exile. Olga, a schoolmistress, attempts to support her siblings in the home which their father left to them. Masha finds solace from her loveless marriage in an affair with a passionate army officer. Irina, the youngest of the three, forces herself to return the affections of a suitor, hoping that he will bring her back to the city of her youth before it is too late. Intoxicated by yesterday’s highs and heedless of tomorrow’s woes, the sisters are left to sift through the debris of their shattered dreams on the eve of the social and political upheaval that will change Russia forever.

The play is set in the part of the Russian Empire that is modern day Ukraine, and this production will take focus on the Prozorov family’s alienness in regard to their surroundings. Natural born Russian Muscovites, the sisters and their brother, Andrei, are in a town and province where they do not belong. Much of their unhappiness and lack of fulfillment stems from their distaste for where they live and longing to return to Moscow. The parallels that can be drawn to today’s headlines make what is a small drawing room drama into something far grander in its symbolism.

Three Sisters will be CTC’s third production of Chekhov’s four major plays, including productions of Uncle Vanya [2012] and The Cherry Orchard [2015]. That leaves only The Seagull as the last of the Russian master’s major plays.

“I absolutely love Chekhov. He’s widely misunderstood in the United States, in my opinion,” says director John Johnston. “We think of his plays as these heavy dramas full of melancholy, but in reality, Chekhov saw his plays as dark comedies. Think of the character of Charlie Brown. He’s a sad fellow who rarely gets what he wants, but in his failure to achieve his desires, we laugh. That’s Chekhov to me. If we haven’t been laughing at the comedy in this play, when it’s time to cry at the tragedy, we’ll be numb to it. That is deadly theatre to me.”

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