Sad Poetry and Naked Insight in Sisters

Chebutykin (Randy Wonzong) looks on as the three sisters, Olga (Becca Long, standing on left), Masha (Miranda Jonte, standing on right), and Irina (Lorraine Cink, seated), lament their fate. (photo KM)

CSU, Chico's Department of Theatre Arts will stage a production of Anton Chekhov's The Three Sisters, March 10-13 at 7:30 p.m. and March 14 at 2 p.m. in Harlen Adams Theatre.

The Three Sisters is, as a critic reviewing a Broadway production of the play pointed out, "an amazing distillation of everything that fills our days on earth, and its sad poetry and naked insight lingers long after the final curtain comes down."

Set in chaotic Russia during the turn of the century, as the fall of the czar instigates changes throughout the country, the play follows the saga of three sisters who endure their drab existence in the provinces in hopes they may eventually return to the cosmopolitan splendor of Moscow.

Living with their simpleton brother and his domineering wife, the women occupy their lives with empty marriages and petty liaisons, only to find their dreams of Moscow thwarted at every turn. The play has comedic aspects that are mainly produced by the choices made by the sisters, noted director Susan Pate, faculty member in the Department of Theatre Arts.

The Three Sisters focuses on the day-to-day trails and tribulations of Olga, Masha, and Irina and follows the three poor but socially high-class sisters and the men in their lives—brother Andrei and the sisters' various lovers and husbands—over a four-and-a-half year period of struggle and dissatisfaction.Joe Dimaggio, Humanities and Fine Arts