Theatre savvy Americans always laugh when someone says that Chekhov intended his plays to be comedies. Maybe in Russia they are funny, but here in our vastly different culture, Chekhov always turns out downright tragic. I recently saw Three Sisters at Artists Repertory Theatre (ART), and I was pleased that while, yes, the play does turn out downright tragic, it found the irony through the gloom and in places was even humorous. I can definitely say that watching all these characters go around and around in their monotonous lives and never doing anything to eleviate their suffering, boredom, and general dissatisfaction with everything really made me want to get out and live.
I liked the show a lot, and I thought that most of the actors had really stellar performances. Marjorie Tatum played Natasha and she was just as evil as I hoped she'd be. As soon as she would come onstage I would just cringe. Todd Van Voris, who I've seen in several shows about town now, as always did a wonderful job. Patrick Dizney, who has seen more of my work than I've seen of his, was quite impressive. Making a very attractive miliatry man, it was easy to see how his Vershinin could have been a "lovesick major" in his younger years. Of course, the three sisters themselves (Luisa Sermol as Masha, Andrea Frankle as Olga, and Amaya Villazan as Irina) did very well.
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