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FIRST: Europeanizing

the Big Cities

In a movement largely started by Peter the Great in the early 18th century, Russia began a conscious movement towards Europeanizing its big cities, St. Petersburg, the capital till 1917, and Moscow. Back from his romps in Western Europe, Peter brought back European fashion trends (beardless faces became trendy), technology (introduction of the printing press, expanding literacy to the provinces), the census, foods (including potatoes that poisoned the poor, along with an etiquette manual), and even changed the concept of time, swapping the traditional Russian calendar with the Roman, declaring 7208 as 1700 AD. Peter vigorously enforced these cultural changes, often with violence. Religious and philosophical views from the Enlightenment also infiltrated the intelligentsia of Russia’s big cities, creating a spiritual divide in the country geographically. Along with Peter’s introduction of modernity from Europe came the search for a Russian identity, one which conveniently could be cultivated through the arts. Developments in literature (Tolstoy, Pushkin, Dostoevsky) and music ("the Big Five", Tchaikovsky) defined a new Russianness, fusing the more traditional folk spirit with intellectual and romantic forms from European cultural capitals like France and Italy. All of this development did eventually beg the question: what could become of the Russian theatre?

PRODUCTION HISTORY

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Map of St. Petersburg from 1883

THEN: The Moscow Art Theatre

Thus came the Moscow Art Theatre. Konstantin Stanislavski and Nemirovich-Danchenko set out to create a theatre of realism; one that sought to produce plays closer to "real life." Stanislavski dreamed of a training method for actors that could legitimize the practice of acting as a craft. Nemirovich-Danchenko knew a man whose plays fit perfectly into Stanislavski’s scheme. Through years of ideological and financial conflict, the Moscow Art Theatre was born, and changed Western theatre, through various tours to America and global acclaim, forever.

M.A.T. & Chekhov

  • Anton Pavlovich Chekhov was born in Taganrog, a Southern town in Russia near the Dead Sea in 1860. 

  • The third of six children, his grandfather was a serf and bought his freedom in 1841, twenty years before the Tsar freed the serfs in 1861. 

  • His family had many financial troubles, which he supported through publishing short stories in the paper and tutoring students. 

  • Chekhov attended Moscow University for Medicine, and became a doctor for many years. 

  • In 1889 his brother died. Chekhov went to the Russian penal colony of Sakhalin to finish his brothers’ work of surveying the land.

  • After a failure in St. Petersburg, the Moscow Art Theatre successfully produces The Seagull in 1898.

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Unfinished portrait of a young Chekhov, painted by his brother

THREE SISTERS

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Origins of Three Sisters

  • Chekhov is said to have been inspired by the Lintvarev sisters he met on holiday in Vosmressensk.

  • Chekhov wrote most of the play remotely in Yalta, and revised it in Moscow.

  • At the first rehearsal, members of the MAT remarked, “This is not a play, but only a scheme; there are no roles but only hints.” 

  • Three Sisters first premiered in 1901. Critics were at first confused - why don't the sisters go to Moscow? 

  • Chekhov began to attend more rehearsals in Moscow

  • Chekhov claimed the play to be a vaudeville

  • When it was remounted at the Moscow Art Theatre, Anton was reportedly satisfied: “for the first time in his life…[he is] perfectly satisfied with the production of one of his plays. He was applauded in two curtain calls after Act III”

  • Three Sisters continued the success of Uncle Vanya for the Moscow Art Theatre

  • Chekhov also married Olga Knipper, the actress playing Masha, at the time

Archival images from the Moscow Art Theatre production

A Questionable Legacy

One of Stanislavski’s principles was the pursuit of authenticity in onstage performance, and a rejection of the stale tropes and archetypes that actors had leaned on for so long. Chekhov’s plays provided multi-dimensional characters who required in-depth analysis, and worked in tandem with Stanislavski’s new system. 

The legacy of Stanislavski’s system today is far murkier. What happens when a creative system depends on a single guru proclaiming what is “authentic?” Who deems what is “authentic?” Read “Me Too & the Method” by Holly L. Derr and "Whiteness, Patriarchy, and Resistance in Actor Training Texts" by Amy Steiger for a closer look at the sexist and racist consequences that handing over the power to a central patriarchal voice brought upon acting training in America and the world. 
 

LISTEN: In 20th Century Russia, we write letters...

Despite their partnership, the two men came from different worlds, Stanislavski a rich member of the nobility, and Chekhov, the only educated son of a family descended from serfs. The juicy conflict of the Moscow Art Theatre is animated here through documented letters, read aloud by members of the ensemble: 

Moscow Art Theatre Letters - Introduction
00:00 / 12:13
Letters - Part 1
00:00 / 42:49
Letters - Part 2
00:00 / 23:57

INTERPRETATION

Obviously we are not the first to re-imagine Chekhov’s work. People have made careers out of adapting, updating, and translating his work. So, the question is, what is it about this guy? We will be looking at several different productions of Three Sisters.  The purpose of this is to see the versatility of the piece and how it can be changed to bring out different themes and adapt to modern times or speak on another specific even. It also important to see the universality of Chekhov’s work and understand how it can potentially be improved upon or get lost in translation

inua ellams national theatre poster
  • directed by TRIP CULLMAN

  • You can tell basically everything from the tag line 

  •  “The struggle is real for Olga (REBECCA HENDERSON), Masha (CHRIS PERFETTI), and Irina (TAVI GEVINSON): siblings who are NOT super thrilled to be stuck in rural Russia circa 1900 (laaame).”

  • According to Matthew (my primary source) the scenes were done in the original Chekhov dialogue and then replayed with the subtext out loud 

  • a contemporary reimagining, black comedy

Moscow Moscow Moscow Moscow Moscow Moscow by Halley Feiffer 

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Three Sisters by Lucy Caldwell

  • “Three sisters, Orla, Marianne and Erin, dream of escaping their tedious suburban lives for a fresh start in America. It is Erin’s eighteenth birthday and, as the sun shines and guests assemble, everything for a fleeting moment feels possible.”

  • Relocated from a Russian provincial town in 1900 to East Belfast in the 1990s, Lucy Caldwell’s version of Chekhov’s Three Sisters opened at the Lyric Theatre, Belfast in October 2016.

  • This production replaced the Russian revolution with The Troubles in Ireland

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National Theatre Poster for Innua Ellams' Adaptation 

Halley Feiffer's Adaptation at MCC Theater

Lucy Caldwell's Adaptation at Belfast's Lyric Theatre

Three Sisters by Benedict Andrews

  • Johannes Schütz's design features a mound of mud instead of the forest of trees that customarily surrounds the sisters' country mansion. 

  • He said he did not want the actors to be able to hide

  • His version focuses on the feeling of homesickness……….yeah

  • “For me, it could just as easily be an Icelandic banker, or someone who owns a supermarket chain, or the new rich in Russia. People do not want to believe that there is a huge class gap in society: we want to believe we're all part of this iPod world." Now, as in Chekhov's time, people have "a sense of end times, or a sense that everything might collapse."

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Benedict Andrews' Adaptation at the Young Vic

Three Sisters by RashDash

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  • Rash Dash is a group of three women: Abbi Greenland, Becky Wilke, and Helen Goalen, who write and act.

  • THEY TOOK OUT THE MEN!!!! I REPEAT THEY TOOK OUT THE MEN!!!

  • Set in a drawing room in 1901.

  • 'He was philosophising his head off all night!'

  • “How should I make the most of being alive in this moment? How should I try to enjoy life whilst also being a good person who makes space for a better future? What is love and where do I find it?  Why do the men in this play have all the lines?”

  • “Chekhov. Dead, white man. A classic play. What are you expecting?”

RashDash's Adaptation at Royal Exchange Theatre

Inua Ellams' Adaptation at the National Theatre

Three Sisters by Inua Ellams

  • Set a little bit before and during the Biafra War (aka the Nigerian civil war). 1967-1970

  • Fought between the government of Nigeria and the secessionist state of Biafra from 6 July 1967 to 15 January 1970. Biafra represented nationalist aspirations of the Igbo people, whose leadership felt they could no longer coexist with the Northern-dominated federal government. 

  • Proceeded Britain's formal decolonization of Nigeria from 1960 to 1963.

  • The body, plot, and spirit of the original piece remains but it is certainly altered

  • In this version the themes of war are AMPED UP!!

  • Not only are the girls educated, they actually apply it by discussing political affairs and their place in the world 

  • In this adaptation Natasha is not just lower class, she’s Nigerian and the sisters are extremely prejudiced

  • Arranged marriage is a HUGE theme as Masha and Kulygin were in one

  • He completely altered the dramatic style and made it WAY more climatic with action on stage

  • We actually SEE the war, their house is made into an infirmary 

  • A critique on colonialism and it was produced at the National Theatre in London!

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