The Three Sisters
The Three Sisters
The script that we have been given has been adapted and translated for modern use by Benedict Andrews.
We began looking at the play 'The Three Sisters' by Anton Chekhov. We sat in a group and read through the first couple pages of the script and were given characters to speak as so we could get a feeling of the characters right from the beginning. This is useful as it allows us to adapt to the new roles as soon as possible. Our teacher then began explaining the events of the story and the main characters. The three sisters, Olga being the eldest at 28, Masha the middle sister at 23 and the youngest Irina at 20.
As a class we spoke about what we thought were some of the main themes in the play, we decided them to be:
I was given the roles of Chebutykin in Act 3 and Vershinin in Act 2.
In act 2 I come in with Masha as she is talking about the problems with her husband to her love interest and I seem as if I don't really care as I do not for her and her husband. I move to make myself a drink to make the main focus on her as she is speaking about her issues, it is only until after I am finished making a drink that Marsha and I spark a flirtatious moment where we link eyes and clink our glasses. I then move to sit next to her and begin to talk about the problems of society and people becoming increasingly lazy and uninspired, talking about our capacity to be extraordinary but only 'scarping the bottom of the barrel'. Masha in response tells me I am in a foul mood and explain it is because of my horrible wife has had made my daughters sick which is why I am not happy. I then seek comfort in Masha by professing my need for her being there which is represented in the line "Please don't be angry, without you I have no one, no one.". I then compliment her which sparks us being flirtatious and begins to create a potential romantic moment leading up to us both standing up close to kissing but interrupted by the arrival of Baron Tuzenbach and Irina. Masha, myself and Tuzenbach are caught in an awkward moment of silence whilst Irina is explaining her day working at the post office, the arrival of Olga prompts my leave of the scene as she waves me out of my seat as it is her house.
In Act 3 I enter completely drunk from my uselessness in the fire that has just struck the town and my failure to save a woman who was dying in the nearby town of Zasyp, the feeling of emptiness are clear in how much I was drinking in the scene which shows just how little care I have for my life. I speak about when I was younger and how I was better but my incerasing age has made me weaker and my medical knowledge has been forgotton. The title doctor is taken as a mockery as even though I remain the title I feel it only represents my success of when I was a younger doctor and and symbol of my weakness as I am older now. This is represented in the line "Sure 20 years ago maybe I knew something, but I've forgotten it all now, my head's empty, my soul's frozen over". This further helps to support my ideas of Chebutykin feeling like he is nothing, a shell of what he once was, and the respect that people have for him is only their memories of him from when he was younger. I also speak about trying to fit in at a club where other character's of the play are talking about Shakespeare and Voltaire and how he had pretended to have read them just to fit in. This made me feel as if he is only pretending to fit in in order to still feel included and retain a sense of his youth as he is getting older but clearly is not willing to embrace it. The scene ends with my talking about how my failures at saving the woman, helping anyone in the fire, and my embarrassment trying to fit in at the club had led me to start drinking non stop up to this moment in time finishing on the line "So I went out and started drinking". I end the scene by fishing all the remaining drink in the bottle then looking at the floor. I feel this is powerful as it is the last thing the audience will see.
Whilst I was not rehearsing my scenes I too it upon myself to further rehearse my lines and think about the subtext and how I could demonstrate my relationships to the characters better.
I further explored the ideas of given circumstances in relation to my character and found the best way to lay it out was:
I used the ideas of given circumstance to delve deeper into the subtext of my lines and how i could further show this by how i react to other character and my relationship towards them. For example before I would always sit with Masha form the beginning of the scene, but after looking at the script i used given circumstance to create a moment where it seems the 2 could be flirtatious towards each other which worked very well in the rehearsals for the show. So to further show my understanding I decided I would not just sit with her but instead make us both a drink which leads to us linking eyes and clinking the glasses then me smoothly moving to sit next to her. This works well to show the romantic intent that these 2 characters have with each other despite them both already being married, it appears they seek the thrill of being with each other to add excitement to their boring routine lives.
The script that we have been given has been adapted and translated for modern use by Benedict Andrews.
We began looking at the play 'The Three Sisters' by Anton Chekhov. We sat in a group and read through the first couple pages of the script and were given characters to speak as so we could get a feeling of the characters right from the beginning. This is useful as it allows us to adapt to the new roles as soon as possible. Our teacher then began explaining the events of the story and the main characters. The three sisters, Olga being the eldest at 28, Masha the middle sister at 23 and the youngest Irina at 20.
As a class we spoke about what we thought were some of the main themes in the play, we decided them to be:
- Family
- Conflict
- Relationships
- Politics
- Dissatisfaction
- Class
After this we the read the first scene a couple of times and discussed the potential blocking that may occur in the scene. We decided the best way to see how it will work is by trial and error so we just rehearsed it differently each time until we had something that worked. Then we spoke about characterisation and mannerisms such as tone of voice and gestures to show meaning and to express the characters clearly.
Rehearsals
I was given the roles of Chebutykin in Act 3 and Vershinin in Act 2.
In act 2 I come in with Masha as she is talking about the problems with her husband to her love interest and I seem as if I don't really care as I do not for her and her husband. I move to make myself a drink to make the main focus on her as she is speaking about her issues, it is only until after I am finished making a drink that Marsha and I spark a flirtatious moment where we link eyes and clink our glasses. I then move to sit next to her and begin to talk about the problems of society and people becoming increasingly lazy and uninspired, talking about our capacity to be extraordinary but only 'scarping the bottom of the barrel'. Masha in response tells me I am in a foul mood and explain it is because of my horrible wife has had made my daughters sick which is why I am not happy. I then seek comfort in Masha by professing my need for her being there which is represented in the line "Please don't be angry, without you I have no one, no one.". I then compliment her which sparks us being flirtatious and begins to create a potential romantic moment leading up to us both standing up close to kissing but interrupted by the arrival of Baron Tuzenbach and Irina. Masha, myself and Tuzenbach are caught in an awkward moment of silence whilst Irina is explaining her day working at the post office, the arrival of Olga prompts my leave of the scene as she waves me out of my seat as it is her house.
In Act 3 I enter completely drunk from my uselessness in the fire that has just struck the town and my failure to save a woman who was dying in the nearby town of Zasyp, the feeling of emptiness are clear in how much I was drinking in the scene which shows just how little care I have for my life. I speak about when I was younger and how I was better but my incerasing age has made me weaker and my medical knowledge has been forgotton. The title doctor is taken as a mockery as even though I remain the title I feel it only represents my success of when I was a younger doctor and and symbol of my weakness as I am older now. This is represented in the line "Sure 20 years ago maybe I knew something, but I've forgotten it all now, my head's empty, my soul's frozen over". This further helps to support my ideas of Chebutykin feeling like he is nothing, a shell of what he once was, and the respect that people have for him is only their memories of him from when he was younger. I also speak about trying to fit in at a club where other character's of the play are talking about Shakespeare and Voltaire and how he had pretended to have read them just to fit in. This made me feel as if he is only pretending to fit in in order to still feel included and retain a sense of his youth as he is getting older but clearly is not willing to embrace it. The scene ends with my talking about how my failures at saving the woman, helping anyone in the fire, and my embarrassment trying to fit in at the club had led me to start drinking non stop up to this moment in time finishing on the line "So I went out and started drinking". I end the scene by fishing all the remaining drink in the bottle then looking at the floor. I feel this is powerful as it is the last thing the audience will see.
Whilst I was not rehearsing my scenes I too it upon myself to further rehearse my lines and think about the subtext and how I could demonstrate my relationships to the characters better.
I further explored the ideas of given circumstances in relation to my character and found the best way to lay it out was:
- Where are they?: In the Pozorov Household
- What happens?: Masha and Vershinin almost kiss but are interrupted by the arrival of Irina and Tuzenbach. This creates tension as myself and Masha are unaware if they had seen the lead up to the kiss, this makes us create distance from each other leading into and awkward silence between myself, Masha and Tuzenbach. Irina is clearly not paying attention ass she is talking about her day.
I used the ideas of given circumstance to delve deeper into the subtext of my lines and how i could further show this by how i react to other character and my relationship towards them. For example before I would always sit with Masha form the beginning of the scene, but after looking at the script i used given circumstance to create a moment where it seems the 2 could be flirtatious towards each other which worked very well in the rehearsals for the show. So to further show my understanding I decided I would not just sit with her but instead make us both a drink which leads to us linking eyes and clinking the glasses then me smoothly moving to sit next to her. This works well to show the romantic intent that these 2 characters have with each other despite them both already being married, it appears they seek the thrill of being with each other to add excitement to their boring routine lives.
Context
In my research I learnt that the play was first written in 1900 and is set around the same time in a small Russian Town. It was first performed in the Moscow Art Theatre and is sometimes included on the short list of Chekhov's outstanding plays.
I feel that the play is relevant today as it includes many different themes that are still important today such as family, unhappiness with where we are in life, and relationships. The themes are important which is clear by how much they are used in everyday life as everyone has a family and their own relationships with them. Unhappiness in their lives is still a big issue today with depression becoming a larger more common issue, this further helps to show that everyone has flaws and insecurities regardless if you are a fictional character or a real human being.
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