★★★★ "Stunning" - The Guardian (Critics Choice)
★★★★★ "Luminous" - The Independent
★★★★ "Extraordinary" - The Times (Critics Choice)
★★★★ "Beautiful" - Time Out (London)
★★★★ "Urgent" - The Telegraph (Critics Choice)
★★★★ "Addictive" - Whats On Stage
★★★★ "Exquisite" - Broadway World
★★★★★ "Outstanding" - Arts Desk
★★★★ "Heart-wrenching" - The Stage
★★★★★ "Masterful" - Theatre News
"ETHEREAL... THESE RUSSIAN ACTORS SEEM TO HAVE AN INTUITIVE ABILITY TO MAKE WHIPLASH FLUCTUATIONS FEEL LIKE THE MOST AUTHENTIC EXPRESSION OF HUMANITY'S COMMON LOT"
New York Times
"FIERCE AND UNFORGETTABLE... MASTERFUL"
Broadway World
"RUSSIAN ACTING AT ITS INCOMPARABLE BEST"
Michael Billington
"THE EMOTIONS NOT ONLY BUBBLE TO THE TOP BUT BOIL OVER LIKE A SEA OF HISTRIONIC LAVA"
NY Review
MALY DRAMA THEATRE
THREE SISTERS
Vaudeville Theatre
19 - 29 June 2019
★★★★★
"THE MALY DRAMA THEATRE, LED BY THE SUPERSTAR DIRECTOR LEV DODIN, SIMPLY HAS NO PEER IN INTERPRETING CHEKHOV"
Time out (New York)
Following a critically acclaimed West End Season at the Theatre Royal Haymarket in 2018, with their productions of Uncle Vanya and Life & Fate (Critics Choice The Guardian, Financial Times, Telegraph, Sunday Times), the Maly Drama Theatre of St. Petersburg returned to the West End in June 2019 with an luminous retelling of Chekhov’s masterpiece, Three Sisters;
Lev Dodin is renowned as one of the most celebrated theatre practitioners working today, and under his artistic directorship, the Maly Drama Theatre of St. Petersburg has become one of the greatest theatres in the world. During his 35-year tenure, many of Dodin’s shows have won international awards including state prizes of Russian and the USSR, Golden Mask Awards and a Lawrence Olivier Award (becoming the first international company to do so for Stars in the Morning Sky, 1989). In 2000 he received the esteemed European Theatre Award for his services to Theatre.
Produced by Oliver King and Ekaterina Kashyntseva for Belka Productions, and managed by Wild Yak.
CAST
Andrey Prosorov: Alexander Bikovsky
Natash: Katerina Kleopina / Nadezhda Nekrasova
Olga: Irina Tychinina
Masha: Ksenia Rappoport (19-23 June), Elizaveta Boyarskaya (25-29 June)
Irina: Ekaterina Tarasova
Feodor Kuligin: Sergey Vlasov
Alexander Vershinin : Igor Chernevich
Nicolai Tuzenbach: Oleg Ryazanzev
Vassili Soleni: Stanislav Nikolskiy
Ivan Chebutikin: Sergey Kuryshev
Alexey Fedotik: Artur Kozin
Vladimir Rode: Nikita Sidorov
Ferapont: Alexander Koshkarev
Anfisa: Natalia Sokolova (19-23 June), Natalia Akimova (25-29 June)
Maid: Arina Sumkina
Soldier: Sergey Ivanov
Lev Dodin on 'Three Sisters'
Three Sisters is one of the greatest plays in the repertory of world theatre, and one of Chekhov’s most complex; for me Uncle Vanya is his most harmonious play, Three Sisters the most unharmonious. Chekhov’s own personality and views are omnipresent in this snapshot of life – his imagination, the acquiescence to his illness, his skeptical yet optimistic view of the human condition, his knowledge that life continues regardless of our dreams, fears and aspirations. The notion one must fight for the life you want, fight your fate despite the fact you will lose, rings through. Chekhov speaks with passion and eloquence about the beautiful hopelessness of our lives, about the tragic discrepancies between our yearnings and reality, about the vital importance of staying true to one’s self and preserving one’s dignity.
Three Sisters is a play about idealistic people, intellectuals perhaps, but I think idealistic people exist in all strata of society in the same way those with no ideals, or those who have lost their ideals, exist in all strata. Today people all over the world understand all too well what unfulfilled hopes are; we are familiar with plans that have fallen through, forgotten dreams and lost illusions, impossible and unrequited loves – we all unfortunately understand the universal language of loss. We understand the stern language in which life speaks to us. In this life we must stay true to ourselves and preserve our personal dignity at any cost.
