On Stage: Three Sisters

Having never seen a performance of Anton Chekhov’s 1901 family drama Three Sisters, I had no idea what to expect.

Attending a matinee performance of the new Theatre Works production and being advised it would be full of school students (the work is featured on Victoria’s 2025 VCE Theatre Studies playlist) there was some apprehension.

However, the only noise from the students came at the end of the performance via the rapturous applause for the 12 cast members who for two hours brought Chekhov’s rather depressing story to life.

First performed in 1901, Three Sisters follows the lives of four siblings over a three and a half year period after the death of their father.

The four – Olga (Mia Landgren), Marsha (Joanna Halliday), Irina (Stella Carroll) and Andrei (Ty McKenzie) – live in a large house in a regional Russian garrison town.

Other household members include the siblings’ former nurse Anfisa (Rosemary Johns) and faithful janitor Ferapont (Syd Brisbane), while boisterous army doctor and family friend Chebutykin (Chris Connolly) seems to spend a lot of the time at the house. He was in love with the children’s mother, who has been dead for several years.

As the title suggests emphasis is on the three sisters- although the actions of their brother have a major impact on their lives.

None of the sisters are particularly happy.  Olga, the oldest sister, is a teacher who never married but has always wanted to. Marsha the middle sister, is unhappily married to teacher, Kulygin (Simon Chandler) who seems a decent fellow but whom Marsha finds boring.  The younger sister, 20-year-old Irina, who is celebrating her naming day (which also falls on the one-year anniversary of the death of her father), is initially optimistic about the future.

Their brother, the violin playing Andrei, dreams of returning to Moscow and a job as a faculty professor. His marriage to the very unpleasant and increasingly controlling Natasha (Belle Hansen) is one of several events that impact the sisters. His uncontrollable gambling is another.

Marsha’s affair with the married Lieutenant Colonel Vershinin (Gabriel Partington) who commands the artillery battery in town, has a major impact on her life and on Olga’s.

Irina has two suitors, army lieutenant Baron Tuzenbach (Laurence Young), and the staff captain Solyony (River Stevens). She loves neither but agrees to marry Tuzenbach with tragic consequences.

Like the rest of the family all she wants is to return to Moscow.  Needless to say there are no happy endings for anyone with the exception of Anfisa, who the uncaring and scheming Natasha had tried to banish. Natasha’s selfishness is also evident in the aftermath of a large fire which devastates the surrounding community.

Three Sisters is renowned for its powerful exploration of longing, despair, the passage of time and unfulfilled dreams and ambitions.  Thanks to the hard work of the cast (including ensuring their voices can be clearly heard),  this production, reimagined for a contemporary audience by director Greg Carroll,  provides an entertaining introduction to what is regarded as one of Chekhov’s best works.

Three Sisters is playing at Theatre Works 14 Acland Street, St Kilda until March 22.  For more information and tickets visit the Theatre Works website.

*Photo credit: Steven Mitchell Wright.

Jenny Burns attended a performance of Three Sisters as a guest of the production company.