Thursday, November 08, 2012
My Life at the Theater: THREE SISTERS
I have never seen the movie shown here (is it a parody?) but we saw the play THREE SISTERS by Anton Chekhov at the Stratford Festival in 2008. I must confess I far prefer Chekhov's stories to his plays, which seem overly lethargic, dramatic, enigmatic. For me, a play is immediate and I have little patience with enigmatic characters on a stage. Especially a cast full of them. When reading a play, you can stop to mull a line over but on stage, the action or inaction continues.
But I am sure there are some great fans of his plays.
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5 comments:
Patti, we agree on this. I love Chekhov's short stories too. (An aside, for anyone who is interested and is too lazy to go look for a book just google '201 stories by Anton Chekhov and read them online. I did, all of them.)
The plays are too long and don't go anywhere (much like the three sisters).
Jeff M.
Have seen all of them and liked none. Is it possible his brother wrote the plays?
You know, I like the few full productions I've seen...but I do like the short fiction better. THE SISTERS (2005) has a stellar cast and is probably a rather loose adaptation, and I like it pretty well, too. (Don't think I've seen a full production of THREE SISTERS.)
Patti - Put me in the 'agree with you' column too. Checkhov's short stories have much to recommend them. I'm less excited about the plays though.
UNCLE VANYA is a play I've seen and loved more often than nearly every Shakespeare play. A director who finds the humor in the material gives Checkhov the right spin; playing it dead straight is deadening. My favorite production on film is Louis Malle's VANYA ON 42ND STREET (1992), with Wally Shawn, Julianne Moore, and Andre Gregory.
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