The Three Sisters, Warton Drama

WARTON Drama chose Chekhov's The Three Sisters for its spring production, writes IAN JONES.

The Moscow-born Prozorov sisters and brother now live in a dull provincial garrison town. The only interest is provided by the transitory presence of the military. This production of a play fraught with the danger of simply seeming as dull as the sisters find their lives to be was a triumph of ensemble work. Marion Plowright has again assembled a team which works together most impressively.

Traverse stages present special challenges for movement and audibility. These are handled with certainty and ease by this cast. The pacing of the often mundane dialogue is fluid, varied and spontaneous. Moira Hallam plays Olga, the eldest sister, with warmth in her 'passionate longing' for Moscow. In contrast Masha - Joanne Leeman - seems ill-tempered and dissatisfied. Her marriage to the pompous, though genuinely warm-hearted, Latin teacher, played with appropriate naivety by David Leeman, is profoundly unsatisfactory. Emma Nixon plays the youngest sister, Irina. Her performance is a joy throughout. Her vivaciousness is present in her constantly changing expressions and her irrepressible lightness of movement.

The sisters find life frustrating and unfulfilling. Returning to Moscow is their dream. Their lives revolve around the garrisoned soldiers. Paul Slater, Nick Rafferty, James Smedley and Phil Chandler are effectively delineated as different characters: the philosophising Vershinin drawn into a relationship with the lovelorn Masha; the ambitious, aspirational Tusenbach believing in the redeeming qualities of 'work'; the bumptious, unpleasant Solyony who vies with Tusenbach for Irina's affections and ultimately kills him in a pointless duel and the alcoholic Chebutykin whose final comment in the play - "It doesn’t matter" - sums it all up.

Living separate lives are the sisters' brother Andrey, played with sullen bombast by Danny Whitaker, and his fiancé - later his wife - Natalya, played by Charlotte Pearce. They portray very well Andrey's decline from an ambitious young man brought down by his ill-conceived marriage and Natalya's rise from a shy, awkward girl to a proud dominating individual manipulating sisters and servants alike.

The remaining cast and backstage team provide strong support in another triumphant Warton production which shows how Chekhov understood the human condition. Even the most insignificant remarks reveal much about human nature and relationships.