Three Sisters

Three Sisters
By Anton Chekhov. Directed & Adapted by Liz Arday. Factotum Theatre. Tap Gallery (Sydney). June 7 – 23, 2012.

Anton Chekhov’s naturalist play – based, it is believed, on the life of the Bronte sisters – sees three sisters, Olga, Marsha and Irina, and their brother Andrei, in a provincial garrison town in Russia. Dissatisfied with their lives, despite the comings and goings of the soldiers of the garrison, the girls, brought up in Moscow, dream, unsuccessfully, of returning to the symbolic sophistication of that city. Both Marsha and Andrei have made unfortunate marriages. Olga, a schoolteacher, is unhappy. Irina, just turning 20, longs for something more than just being at home. Life is ordinary and relationships brittle.

In this adaptation, Liz Arday has mixed translated dialogue and contemporary language, changed the military garrison to a naval base and the characters to modern caricatures. There is a lot of drinking and carousing, some gratuitous four letter words and some over- acting.

Set on the small TAP Gallery stage, with a table and a few stools the only furniture, it is hard to imagine the sophistication that the sisters claim.

Alison McGirr (Marsha), Shaelee Rooke (Irina) and Alixandra Kupcik (Olga) introduce themselves in heavy drinking party mode and strive to convince the audience of their characters. Aaron J Marsh, as Andrei presents as a lost flounderer, idolised by his sisters for his scholarship, but having little inner strength or self worth.

Nicole Wineberg, playing his wife Natasha, moves from awkward orphan to a loud, bossy wife, flouncing around the stage in a negligee.

Ben Dalton as Vershinin, the commanding officer of the base, is more believable. His voice is more modulated and his characterisation more considered.

So also is Paul Armstrong as Marsha’s Latin-teacher husband Fyodor. He is suitably pompous and a trifle pathetic as he battles on despite being ridiculed by his sisters-in-law and betrayed by his wife.

As the sailors, Michael Smith, Evan Ferguson and John Shearer join the drinking and make bungling attempts to impress the sisters.

Penny Day, as the old family retainer, Anfisa, and Patrick George (Baron Tuzenbach) make up the company.

Affected on opening night by serious lighting problems and a late start, the action was rather patchy and it was hard to suspend disbelief. Obviously the actors have enjoyed the rehearsal period – but the production probably required a little more serious character development.

Carol Wimmer

Photographer: Deborah Abasser

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