SISTERS SEARCH FOR A BETTER LIFE IN MOSCOW - TRACY LETTS ADAPTED VERSION OF A CHEKHOV CLASSIC
Tracy Letts' adaptation of Anton Chekhov's THREE SISTERS is well played at the Douglas Morrisson Theatre in Hayward - This is a fresh but faithful adaptation by the Chicago playwright an actor who is best known for AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY. Letts has sped up the characters and given them all a sharpness with many modern profanities. Letts knows family dysfunction well as seen with the edgy humor and heart that makes this Chekhov classic a pleasure to watch even with 2.5 hour running time.
The story remains the same following the death of their military father the Moscow-bred sisters Olga, Masha, and Irina have lead lonely lives in their Russian town. The older sister Olga who is a teacher yearns for a family of her own. Marsha in an unhappy marriage falls for married colonel. Irina seeks to find happiness and love by trying to get back to Moscow. All three dream of starting a new life in Moscow where life is cultured and intelligent but they remain with their hopes and dreams in the small military town are troubled with the practicalities of their quiet lives. When the army post moves on they resolve to seek some purpose and hope.
DMC director, Susan Evan, takes her talented cast to party moments with the brisk new modern dialogue, and live music and song. Letts’ version brings well deserved humor to the provincial world of these THREE SISTERS. The story focuses on these small-town dreamers with their O’Neill-like “dreams”.
Daria Hepps (Olga), Kate Tomatis (Masha), and Miriam Ani (Irina) are all excellent as the three women down by bad luck and inertia. They deserve better from life, but they are left wondering if their suffering and disappointment has any meaning. “Why are we here” clearly Olga’s line “ If we could know. If we could only know.”
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The characters who revolve around the sisters are excellent. The most interesting character in the story is Solyony, the irrational enemy of the, likable and ill-fated Baron Tusenbach played well by Paul Stout. Tim Holt Jones gives Solyony a psychopathic edge. Craig Dickerson is terrific as Andrey, drenched in disappointment over his failure to become a professor and sad that he has married a harridan who is making him a cuckold as she abuses his household. We don’t get to know Natasha as much as she enters the Prozorov family, but Lindsey Schmeltzer brings the bitch to life in all her viciousness, angry by her inward knowledge that she isn’t in the same class as the sisters and their friends.
There is also first-rate work from John Baldwin, is humorous as Doctor Chebutykin, a man who continually questions “what does it all matter” cynicism. Gene Mocsy, almost unrecognizable as Kulygin, the blinded schoolmaster who lives with the knowledge that his wife Masha loves another man. Nick Louie makes a strong comic impression in the small role of Fedotik, a junior officer in the army. Two elder states persons Marlene Walker and John Hutchinson are great as the Prozorov nanny and a comical watchman from the district council. Steve Allhoff and Brian Levi round out the other characters as another army junior officer and lieutenant.
Costume designer Daisy Dickerson
Michael Locher’s set designs reveal the rustic provincial feeling of the play. Allen Willner designed the moody lighting including some well added florescent lights. Brendan Aanes’ sound design, and Daisy Dickerson’s spot-on period costumes are the best.
Like most Chekhov plays, THREE SISTERS ends with journeys that will separate many of the characters from each other for life, including men and women who in a better world would have spent their lives together happily. But that’s not Chekhov’s world. Most of the characters have wasted their lives, but they still retain a spark of bravery and their dignity, wishing for beauty in their lives. They may be a sad and exasperating gang, but it was a pleasure being in their company for 2½ hours in Hayward Ca. as they find their way to their beloved Moscow.
DMC continues to impress me this season - the company continues to improve and that is mainly to more talented bay area actors streaming to the Hayward stage and continue to raise the bar at this east bay venue.
THREE SISTERS, Directed by Susan E. Evans, and featuring Steve Allhoff, Miriam Ani, John Baldwin, Craig Dickerson, Kate Dunlop Tomatis, Daria Hepps, Tim Holt Jones, John Hutchinson, Brian Levi, Nick Louie, Gene Mocsy, Lindsey Marie Schmeltzer, Paul Stout and Marlene Walker.
22311 N Third St, Hayward, California 94546
February 13, 2015. 8pm - Sunday, March 8, 2015. 2pm
Tickets Online - www.dmtonline.org
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