Three Sisters

Three Sisters

Written by Anton Chekhov
Performed in Russia
2005–2013

Arguably the greatest play of the twentieth century, Three Sisters tells the tale of Olga, Irina and Masha whose lives are turned upside down by the arrival of glamourous officer Vershinin to their remote town. Their eternal struggle to live and to love is charted with Chekhov’s sharp eye and unfailing humanity.

Produced by the Federal Agency for Culture and Cinematography, Committee for Culture of Moscow, Chekhov International Theatre Festival / Moscow ; Les Gémeaux / Sceaux / Scène Nationale, La Filature / Mulhouse ; in cooperation with Cheek by Jowl. With support of the British Council in Russia.

The first performance of this production was given on 6th April 2005 at Les Gémeaux, Sceaux, Paris.

“I cannot imagine a more delicate, luminous and emotionally piercing production… Heartbreaking simplicity”
The Times

Cast and creative team

Cast

Name	Character
Alexei Dadanov	Prozorov Andrey Sergeevich
Victoria Tolstoganova / Ekaterina Sibiryakova	Natalia Ivanovna, his fiancée
Evgenia Dmitrieva	Olga
Irina Grineva	Masha
Nelly Uvarova	Irina
Vitaly Egorov / Evgeny Pisarev	Kulygin Fedor Ilyich, Masha’s husband
Alexander Feklistov	Vershinin Alexander Ignatievich
Andrey Kuzichev	Tuzenbakh Nikolay Ljovich
Andrey Merzlikin	Soleny Vasily Vasilievich
Mikhail Zhigalov / Igor Yasulovich	Chebutykin Ivan Romanovich
Yury Makeev	Fedotik Alexey Petrovich
Mikhail Dementiev	Rode Vladimir Karpovich
Igor Yasulovich / Mikhail Zhigalov / Yury Smirnov	Ferapont, Caretaker
Galina Morachyova	Anfisa, Nurse

Creative Team

Role	Name
Director	Declan Donnellan
Designer	Nick Ormerod
Lighting Designer	Judith Greenwood
Assistant Director	Evgeny Pisarev
Music	Sergey Chekryzhov
Vocal Coach	Aida Khorosheva
Movement Coach	Ramune Khodorkaite
Interpreter, Literary Consultant	Dina Dodina
Costume Designer’s Assistant	Natalia Vedeneeva
Stage Manager	Olga Vasilevskaya
Technical Director	Vladimir Kizeev

Previous performances

Previous Performances

Date	Location
26–27 April 2013	Saint Petersburg, Russia
25 December 2012	Moscow, Vakhtangov Theatre, Russia
10 December 2012	Moscow, Pushkin Drama Theatre, Russia
9–10 November 2012	Spain, Girona
1–4 November 2012	Spain, Madrid
21 June 2012	Moscow, Mossovyet Theatre, Russia
8–11 June 2011	Nottingham, Theatre Royal, UK
19–20 October 2010	Washington, The Kennedy Centre, D.C, USA
29–30 January 2010	Russia, Yalta
29 September–3 October 2009	Dublin, Dublin Theatre Festival, Ireland
6–10 September 2009	Yekatrinburg, Russia
29 July–3 August 2008	Brisbane, Brisbane Festival, Australia
22–28 February 2008	Wellington, The Opera House, New Zealand
31 August–2 September 2007	Helsinki, Finish National Theatre, Finland
15–19 May 2007	London, Barbican, UK
9–12 May 2007	Newcastle, Northern Stage, UK
1–5 May 2007	Coventry, Warwick Arts Centre, UK
24–28 April 2007	Cambridge, Cambridge Arts Theatre, UK
24 June–3 July 2006	Moscow, Pushkin Drama Theatre, Russia
31 March–2 April 2006	Bogotá, Bogotá International Festival, Columbia
28–30 April 2005	Mulhouse, La Filature, France
6–24 April 2005	Sceaux, Les Gémeaux, Paris, France

Reviews

“Chekhov’s characters, whom we think we know all too well, suddenly burst open, dazzlingly and unforgettably. No one other than Donnellan could have achieved this. He is the first and the unrepeatable.”
Kommersant, Russia

“I cannot imagine a more delicate, luminous and emotionally piercing production of Chekhov’s drama than Cheek By Jowl’s. Performed by the company’s Russian ensemble, it is directed by Declan Donnellan with utter precision, while Nick Ormerod’s design, with its tiny symbolic doll’s house and oppressive backdrop of perilously tilting walls and windows, conveys the way in which the Prozorov family home is both prison and sanctuary. And the acting is nothing short of sublime…Heartbreaking simplicity; simply heartbreaking.”
The Times

“Miraculous Simplicity. Superb!”
Le Figaro, France

“Chekhov as it should be: Declan Donnellan directs an ensemble of the finest Russian actors”
The Irish Independent

“An American ear may not recognize many of the words spoken in this splendid production, performed in Anton Chekhov’s native tongue by a superb Russian cast. But the heart surely connects with all the meticulously realized feeling, the sense of the air being let out of inflated hopes, in a household of declining fortunes in a turn-of-the-20th-century Russian backwater.”
The Washington Post

“Simplicity and clarity of staging allow the complexity to emerge gradually… The freshness here comes from precision, as Donnellan and Ormerod pay attention to every detail of performance and characterisation, picking out the isolation of each character within the close-knit group.”
The Irish Times

“This is a great production, and a thrilling rediscovery of a great and familiar play. Declan Donnellan has lifted from it the bittersweet mist of gentility and melancholy.”
The Sunday Times

“Declan Donnellan and Nick Ormerod, the artistic directors of Cheek By Jowl, are in the unusual position of being considered national treasures in two countries – their native England and their adoptive Russia. The company’s visiting productions had so impressed Moscow and St Petersburg that in 1999 the Theatre Federation took the unprecedented step of inviting them to form a Russian counterpart to Cheek By Jowl. This luminous version of Three Sisters, brilliantly performed by that ensemble, constitutes a complete explanation of why the Russians have taken Donnellan and Ormerod to their hearts…I have never seen a production of the play that moved with such expressive fluency or that communicated its volatile, contradictory moods with a more piercing precision.”
The Independent