Synopses & Reviews
Chekhovs 1901 play, Three Sisters is part of the naturalism movement in theatre where plays portrayed the lives of ordinary people in realistic settings. Three Sisters is about the decay of the privileged class in Russia and the search for meaning in the modern world. It describes the lives and aspirations of the Prozorov family. After their cultured upbringing in Moscow the family moves to a small provincial town after the death of their father. The young sisters find this new life stultifying. Their brother is the new head of the household, but disappoints when he spends his time gambling and marries a woman that the sisters despise. Moscow looms over the play as a symbol of both happiness and an intellectual existence, but always remains at an unreachable distance for these sisters who are desperate to return there. More than a century old, Chekhovs play explores a theme that rings true to modern audiences: the strive for meaning, the attainment of hopes and dreams and the disillusionment when hopes are not fulfilled.
Review
“We value [Chekhov] for his juxtaposition of comedy and emotional pain, his penetration into character and his understanding of the eternal truths of human nature.”—Telegraph
Synopsis
This play was first performed in 1901 and part of the naturalistic movement in theatre to portray the lives of ordinary people in realistic settings. Chekhov explores the disillusion in the lives of three sisters and their brother and a family's discontent and search for meaning in a small provincial town and their hopes to return to urban Moscow and their dreams of restoring refinement and ending isolation.
Synopsis
You'd be hard put to find a better script to work with than this translation by Michael Frayn . . . It sticks rigorously to the inner thrust of the play while giving it a fresh, crisp clarity that makes it not just accessible but compelling to watch. The underlying tragedy . . . is intact. It is made more moving, not less, by the way Frayn's ineffably light touch has caught too the comedy of Andrey and his three sisters.' GUARDIAN
'Frayn puts well the central statement of this most moving of dramas: it is about the irony of the hopes by which people live and the way their destiny mocks them. Chekhov shows how life is both nourished and poisoned by the act of hope itself' DAILY TELEGRAPH
Following their father's death, life for sisters Olga, Masha and Irina in a Russian provincial garrison town has become unbearably dull. They feel they have become culturally, romantically and intellectually starved. To these sisters, Moscow, where they once lived and in spite of its sad memories, has become a symbol of unfulfilled hope, promises and opportunity, and one which contrasts with the tedium of their own lives and circumstances. The sisters' main hope of moving to Moscow depends on their brother, Andrey, with his ambitions to work in academia in Moscow.
Set over three and a half years at the turn of the twentieth century, and premiered at the Moscow Art Theatre in 1901, Chekhov's play has become among the most iconic in modern theatre.
This translation is by Michael Frayn, one of today's most eminent British playwrights and translators of Russian drama.
Commentary and notes by Nick Worrall.
Synopsis
Chekhov's widely performed classic study of provincial life explores the irony of hope and the inadequacy of consolation.
Michael Frayn's hugely popular translation is an AQA recommended text. For this Student Edition Nick Worrall provides expert commentary and notes.
Synopsis
Chekhovs 1901 play, Three Sisters is part of the naturalism movement in theatre where plays portrayed the lives of ordinary people in realistic settings. Three Sisters is about the decay of the privileged class in Russia and the search for meaning in the modern world. It describes the lives and aspirations of the Prozorov family. After their cultured upbringing in Moscow the family moves to a small provincial town after the death of their father. The young sisters find this new life stultifying. Their brother is the new head of the household, but disappoints when he spends his time gambling and marries a woman that the sisters despise. Moscow looms over the play as a symbol of both happiness and an intellectual existence, but always remains at an unreachable distance for these sisters who are desperate to return there. More than a century old, Chekhovs play explores a theme that rings true to modern audiences: the strive for meaning, the attainment of hopes and dreams and the disillusionment when hopes are not fulfilled.
About the Author
Anton Chekhov (1860-1904) was a Russian writer and dramatist. Translated by Michael Frayn. Commentary and notes by Nick Worrall.