Three Sisters They never get to Moscow, but they think about it-a lot
Wren, Celia
STAGE 'Three Sisters' Celia Wren THEY THINK, ERGO, THEY SUFFER Chekhov's The Prozorov sisters' much de-sired and eternally thwart-ed journey to Moscow gleams through Anton Chekhov's Three...
...By contrast, act 4 is set in the garden just outside these same windows...
...That is why if, one day, the act 4 curtain rose on a domicile miraculously trans-ferred to Moscow, the members of the Prozorov household would still be them-selves...
...Unfortunately, some of the performances are a little disappointing...
...It was probably this kind of philo-sophical strain, running through the play, that gave another New York di-rector, Richard Schechner, the idea for a recent experimental version that situ-ated each act at a different point in Russian history, with matching perfor-mance style (act 1 set in 1901 a la Stanis-lavsky, act 2 in the first years of the Communist state with the mannerisms of biomechanics, act 3 as a political cri-tique set in a 1950's labor camp, and act 4 as a postmodern meditation on the end of the Soviet Union...
...As he says in act 4 (according to an older translation than Wilson's): "Life is hard...
...STAGE 'Three Sisters' Celia Wren THEY THINK, ERGO, THEY SUFFER Chekhov's The Prozorov sisters' much de-sired and eternally thwart-ed journey to Moscow gleams through Anton Chekhov's Three Sisters like Zeno's arrow in reverse: as time goes by, the distance between the sisters and their dream city increases, though in act 1 they appear to be on the verge of arriving, and though they would arrive if it were possible to close a gap with pure longing...
...but yet we must admit that it goes on getting clearer and easier, and it looks as though the time were not far off when it will be full of happiness...
...We can see through them to the dining room where Andrei Prozorov's shrewish wife Natalya (Calista Flockhart) is crowing over her children...
...Olga, Masha, Irina, and friends are more than the sum of their circumstances...
...In act 2 a frosty moonlight slants through the panes, and when Irina stands looking out at the carnival revelers who have been turned away from the houre, she really does seem separated from the gaiety of life...
...Though the directorial touches are more subtle here than in director Elliotf's other current Broadway production, Present Laughter, there are some discreet-ly inspired moments, such as when the bizarre, ill-tempered Captain Solyony (Billy Crudup), seated at the back of the stage, rudely polishes his silverware on his dinner napkin while his hostess looks on...
...Overall, his distinguished ac-tors execute their roles with grace, but the energy level never feels terribly high-something of a problem in a play that is three-and-a-half-hours long...
...And if the comings and goings of the characters, the confessions and the non sequiturs, have a hint of staginess, that is certainly a problem that could seem almost inherent to Chekhov...
...The windows' trans-parency makes it all the more noticeable at this point that we do not see Natalya's visiting lover Protopopov, whom Chek-hov chose to make an invisible, though sinister, presence throughout the play...
...Paul Giamatti's excellent comic timing in the role of Andrei comple-ments the character's more reflective moments, such as when he sits in his darkened living room passing his finger through a candle flame...
...Thinking too much causes much unhappiness in this play, which Chek-hov wrote in 1901...
...Even if they did get to Moscow, though, chances are that Olga, Masha, and Irina would still be thinking too much...
...For example, the row of French windows in the Prozorovs' dining room, in acts 1 and 2, gives a nice symmetry to the pro-duction's beginning and end...
...Among the supporting characters, Jerry Stiller is hilariously deadpan as the decaying doctor Chebutykin...
...Thought may also be getting in the way of the Roundabout Theater's pro-duction of Three Sisters, which despite several winning performances and nu-merous comic moments seems a little un-rooted, as if everyone had thought a great deal about the nuances of Chekhov with-out ever feeling at ease with his charac-ters...
...As this intriguing concept suggests, visions of a perfect so-ciety and a better future haunt Three Sisters, a little as the specter of Moscow does...
...Two of the best performances extend the play's atmosphere of sadness and disillusionment beyond the eponymous sisters...
...By the end of the play, though, he is as bad as all the rest...
...In a moment of in-spiration, early in act 1, Irina's suitor, Baron Tuzenbach, rebukes the sisters' bad habit of asking what it all means: "What does it mean?....It's snowing outside-what does that mean...
...Amy Irving ereates a measured and dignified portrait of Olga, her acceptance of suffering seeming to improve her immaculate posture...
...And David Strathairn is truly mov-ing as the disappointed dreamer Ver-shinin, the Battery Commander whose love for Masha cannot tarnish his gal-lant behavior toward his family...
...In a way, Vershinin becomes the play's saddest figure because he is such an idealist, and has such naive faith in an idea of mystical progress...
...Using an unobtrusive translation by the gifted playwright Lanford Wilson, director Scott Elliott has adopted a straightforward, naturalistic approach that takes advantage of the scripf s comic potential...
...A handsome but not extravagant set designed by Derek McLane succeeds in emphasizing the scenes and personali-ties that Chekhov keeps off the stage...
...After all, this production's greatest claim to fame is its cast of eminent actors, includ-ing several refugees from Hollywood...
...Strath-airn has perfect stage presence, and his smallest movements-his cautious, rest-less glances, his soldierly carriage, his slightly uneasy workings of the hands- suggest great passion and pain held in check by impeccable manners...
...More practically, McLane's set gives the characters room to pace about as they ponder the meaning of existence...
...Fortunately, Chekhov never reduces his characters to spokespersons for ideas...
...And they would still be think-ing...
...Everyone is thinking- about the purpose of life, about ambi-tions and careers, about society's future, about why birds fly south-and be-cause they think, they feel perpetually unsatisfied...
...It seems to many of us blank and hopeless...
...Eric Stoltz and David Marshall Grant give amusing but curiously superficial de-pictions of the Baron and of Masha's pompous schoolmaster husband Kuly-gin...
...Jeanne Tripplehorn has seduc-tive moments as the flaky Masha...
...But Lili Taylor is nothing short of disas-trous as the youngest sister, Irina: Taylor delivers all her lines in the same breathy tone, leaning forward from the waist in a way that makes her delivery even more strained and unbelievable...
Vol. 124 • March 1997 • No. 5
