Three Sisters at Theater Basel

With a drama about the everyday, about desire and failure, Anton Chekhov – and with him the modern theatre – entered the 20th century: ‘Three Sisters‘’was premiered at the Moscow Arts Theatre in January 1901. ‘Three Sisters’ is the story of a family, the chronicle of a matriarchy: after their father’s death the three daughters control the destiny of their house in a military town in the provinces, far away from Moscow. Avoiding pathos, spectacle and heroism, Chekhov maintains a masterful balance between melancholy and joie de vivre, realism and stylization: with brilliant dialogue, subtle characterization and the ambivalent figures which these so reliably generate. Following his successful productions of ‘Angels in America’ and ‘John Gabriel Borkman’, Simon Stone, resident director at Theater Basel, will now rewrite, update and question this famous drama for the present day.

“What Chekhov invented was the theatre of the threshhold - moments before and after the dramatic. It's not that nothing happens in his plays, it's that it happens elsewhere, and what we see is the antechamber of his drama. People sit, waiting, hoping, outside narrative, inventing stories, getting ready for their exit - their exit from the stage but, hopefully an entrance into their real lives. Our modern world has become the perfect reflection of Chekhov's invention. The illusion of connection, the illusion of being part of a larger narrative, but this narrative takes place elsewhere, we witness it, we comment on it, but don't really take part. So we invent games, social groups, virtual realities, voyeuristic fantasies, waiting for our entrance into the real world, a real event maybe, that we might finally be the centre of. Is this at all possible? And when we eventually get to Moscow, if we ever get there, will it still exist?” Simon Stone

Authors

• Jerome Kern
• Oscar Hammerstein II