Three Sisters - Almeida

wannabedirector I'm interested to see this one. It would be my first visit to the Almeida (shocking)

There's a sudden loud noises warning. What's that about? Feel free to use spoilers if it's a big giveaway!

It is what’s put in spoiler tags above, however last night it wasn’t that loud at all. I don’t know if it was a technical thing, but I was a little on edge for it and then barely realised it happened

I was about to book this - I loved S&S, but I think I might be saving my money!

Is it still 3 hours 15 please?

Rats. Am due to now do a very quick turn around run. Thanks for info.

Haha, no they were replying to a comment I'd made as we thought she looked the youngest (she's so slight of frame and tiny) compared to the two others, yet is meant to be the older one, left on the shelf.

(Actually we shouldn't talk about shelves...what on earth is the Andrey-then-Natasha shelf all about?  Anyone got any ideas?)

It's a very odd production...

The shelf might represent being emotionally apart from what is happening (which applies for Andrey and later for Natasha, who does not sympathise with the sisters).

That sounds horribly plausible.

(Not judging you when I say that, rather, if that is how they've decided to express that element, what on earth? It's almost hilarious.)

3 hours? That sounds much better, thanks for update.

Press night tonight. Intrigued by what the reviewers say. Am seeing it tomorrow with a date!

I was due to go to see this last week but I just could not be faffed.

So I saw the matinee and am inclined to give this a 2.5 star rating. It would have been 2 stars if the second act didn’t bring things together

I was sitting next to two nice old ladies who had a lot of knowledge of Chekhov and we came to same conclusion that Rebecca Frecknall and Cordelia Flynn do not get Chekhov and this adaptation is devoid of the beauty and essence of this play

Having grown up on countless Shakespeare productions I like it when directors take a play and interpret in many ways. But I’ve come to the conclusion that Chekhov is a different beast altogether and there’s a reason why naturalism is his style.

The Union Theatre production was my first introduction to the play and close up I saw Chekhov’s attention to detail from the setting to the offstage sound effects. The intimacy also meant you can sense the three sisters’ world shrinking around them

So watching this stylistic, simplistic production is like comparing night to day. There’s nothing to stop one attempting a different spin on Chekhov but this production lacks the layers in chekhovs storytelling that makes it so engaging to watch

Frecknall’s direction may have worked in a stylistic play like Summer and Smoke but Three Sisters really shows her limits

It doesn’t help that the actors, as mentioned above, seem to be performing in different productions. I enjoyed the three sisters, especially Patsy Ferran, and Vershinin. Lois Chimimba’s broad welsh accent kept taking me out of the production. I get she’s playing an outsider as Natasha but she was laying it on thick sometimes

The ladies couldn’t help noticing the lack of diction as well as the dancing you usually see at the globe theatre being used during the first act

But most of all the way the cast has been directed to play the scenes at a slow pace really drags the production out, especially in the first act. Yes the characters are bored but we need to see their hopes, fears, anguish and so on break through

You get a bit of that in the second act from the sisters, but this is a slog to get through before you get to that

Ha ha, I was at the matinee as well, and would also give this 4 stars, though in my view, the Benedict Andrews one was better.

Of course, Katie Mitchell's "Three Sisters" was much slower than this, running more than half an hour longer.

I think the reason this one FEELS slow is the decision is to stylistically wallow in absolute fatalism, which choice I loved. I've never seen such a bleak "Three Sisters!"

Some spoilers follow. . .

I mean, sometimes you can find a Chekhov version's essence in song choices. Benedict Andrews opted for a raging "Smells like Teen Spirit," which Nirvana song reflected the raging nihilistic escapism sought by Vanessa Kirby's stinging Masha. Meanwhile, that Anya Reiss Southwark "Three Sisters" opted for a karaoke singalong to Pulp's "Common People," which ultimately made that version all about the rage of descending in societal status, as the Sisters taunted an uber-common Aussie Phoenix of a Natasha.

Here, we get one of the most miserable songs ever written, Jackson Browne's "These Days," performed by Nico, I think, which refrain is ultimate despair: "I've been losing so long."

Every scene here is an exercise in losing. These sisters do not rage, but rather are resigned to misery. I love this choice, as ultimately life is always about losing, and everybody loses in the end.

These three sisters are so morose, with Pearl Chanda's emo-black outfit reflecting an emo-black deadpan; Patsy Ferran constantly trying to civilise her misery by pretending it's palatable, and Ria Zmitrowicz demonstrating her youth by showing a tiny bit of raging against the dying of her light, but ultimately burying her head in a big grey sack that makes her look like a rock.

Indeed, she is the spitting image of a stalagmite, and this version presents every character as stalagmites, with relentless misery dripping onto the existence of every listless dying character. The worst of them all is Freddie Meredith's almost static Andrey, slumped on the shelf against the Almeida's cavernous brick wall becoming part of the stonework.

This "Three Sisters" is about life as dying, and as a consequence, it's too truthful to be any fun.

Wonderful performances from the Sisters as well as Peter McDonald as a Vershinin who speaks his dreams of a vital future in whispers because he doesn't really believe it.

All in all, I like this one for its clarity of vision, as well as its memorable performances, but many will dislike it for being such a downer.

4 stars.

This production did such a good job at conveying a sense of boredom and despair and longing to leave to me that I escaped at the interval this afternoon. Simply couldn’t bear to sit through more of it.

I really do need to put Chekov on the *do not book* list.