The Cast | |
Andrew Prozorov | David Pike |
Natasha, his Fiancée, later his wife | Frances Dudley |
Olga | Mollie Manns |
Masha | Meg Newin |
Irina | Sheana Carrington |
Theodore Kulygin, a schoolmaster, Masha's husband | David Bartlett |
Alexander Vershinin, a Lieutenant-Colonel | James Smith |
Baron Nicholas Tuzenbakh, a Lieutenant | Graham Buchanan |
Captain Vasily Solyony | Peter Neve |
Ivan Chebutykin, an army doctor | Kenneth Spencer |
Aleksey Fedotik, a 2nd Lieutenant | Ray Green |
Vladimir Rodé, a 2nd Lieutenant | Peter White |
Ferapont, an old caretaker | John Lelliott |
Anfisa, an old nurse | Serena Brown |
A Maid | Sandra White |
An Orderly | Dave Dudley |
For the Maskers: | |
Directed by | Ron Stannard |
Technical Director | Ron Tillyer |
Assistant to the Director | Bennett |
Stage Manager | Terry Bennett |
Assistant Stage Managers | Dave Dudley, John Greenhouse, Keith Hooper. Tony Miles, Michael Shailer, Neil Pickering |
Lighting | Colin Jurd, Ivan White |
Sound | Rodney Stratford, Geoff Grandy |
Production Assistants | Judy Rake, Caroline Reeves, Jenny Rodway, Miriam Rose |
Wardrobe Mistress | Jenny Lunn |
Publicity | John Carrington |
The Southampton Evening Echo wrote:
"Three Sisters" is one Chekhov's more frequently performed works, and it has an appeal that seems to belie the play's irresoluteness and lack of drive. It never seems to get anywhere and hangs on the mere thread of a plot. But that is in part what "Three Sisters" is about -- a tale of the waste of youthful talent and boredom in a boring social structure, of thwarted ambition in a small provincial Russian town.
So the apparent weakness becomes its strength, and is exploited with pathos in the Maskers' production at the Nuffield Theatre this week. The play moves quietly among the lives of the three sisters who seek but never find happiness in their seemingly futile lives; but also moves out among a host of characters who add to the production's effect.
Two who stood out especially, I thought were James Smith, as a Russian colonel and Frances Dudley as Natasha, wife of the sisters' brother. The three sisters are played by Mollie Manns, Meg Newin and Sheana Carrington. The show was a competent production by Ron Stannard.
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