Arden Theatre Company Presents Three Sisters by Anton Chekhov

There's quite an amount of emotional heft in Chekov's play, Three Sisters, and it resounds when performed onstage. It is a timeless drama of love, loss, family and social class and standing. The cast at Arden took a new twist to these Chekovian–made that up I think–themes and the play was more engaging as a result.

The opening act takes place in an acting studio, with who's to become the eldest sister introduced to us as an acting teacher offering instruction on Chekov's play to a room of students (studying various other parts). The artifice of the school setting gradually falls away, as each student comes to completely embody their character (the set follows).

The three acts bring to a boil the escalating pressures that each of the three sisters face in their young lives, and gives way to the key elements that grip the play; that a life worth living is a life with the freedom to choose how to live. But they lived in the shadow of their town, encumbered by their past. Moscow was their far off hope for a better life.

The actors portrayed their parts with a deep and sometimes funny yearning for significance, validity – "real" and complete lives.

An added bonus, the actors are often caught in conversation with strumming Russian folk songs, occasionally breaking out in to full song. Far from a musical, the songs just help lighten scenes, and give the play some excellent builds and transitions.