Three
Sisters by Anton Chekov. Free Rain
Theatre Company directed by Catherine Mann at The Courtyard Studio, Canberra
Theatre Centre. Friday-Saturday August
15-16, Wednesday-Saturday August 20-30, 2008, 8pm. Matinees Saturdays 2pm, Sunday August
24, 5pm.
In this translation,
by Nicholas Wright, the doctor Chebutkyn (Oliver Baudert) declares “It doesn’t
matter,” as lives fall apart all around him, emotionally and literally. But we know it does matter that Chekov
created this drama of the unfulfilled lives of the three Prozorov sisters, Olga
(Lainie Hart), Masha (Leah Baulch), Irina (Alison McGregor) and their brother
Andrey (Dallas Bland).
We also know that it
does matter that director Mann and all her large cast, including Barbara
Sekuless (Anfisa), Duncan Ley (Vershinin), Soren Jensen (Baron Tuzenbach),
Duncan Driver (Solyony), Scott Cummings (Fedotik), Paul Leverenz (Rodé), Robert
de Fries (Kulygin), Hannah Meredith (Natasha), Richard Anderson (Ferapont) and
Katherine Olsen (Maid), provide us with a well-crafted presentation of Chekov’s
characters, their relationships, their dreams of future happiness - in 300
years, they say.
What an irony it is
to look around our world after 104 years since Three Sisters was first
performed. Maybe more people than ever before
have more material wealth, but the Russian and Georgian armies still behave as
they did in Chekov’s days, and clinical depression seems even more common. Yet Chekov saw strength in his women in the
end. Masha says “We shall be left alone
to start our life anew. We must
live.” Irina says “The time will come
when there will be no more secrets, when all that is now hidden will be made
plain.” Olga says “I want to live. We shall be forgotten . . . but our
sufferings will pass into joy for those who live after us.”
200 years to go. Can we make it? The intelligence and sense of unity in this
production says we can. The art of
theatre is to create the illusion of truth.
Chekov wrote the truth, and Free Rain have successfully staged his
work. There is satisfaction in their art
which says, yes, “We must live.”
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