TRISTAN: A SONG FOR THE SUPERIOR MAN

Raoul Craemer 
Photo: Andrew Sikorski

Written and Directed by Chenoeh Miller

C-written and performed by Chris Endrey, Nick Delatovic, Oliver Levi-Malouf, 

Raoul Craemer and Erica Field.

Composition and Sound Design by Dane Alexander

Dance Choreography by Alison Plevey

Technical Design and Operation by Ben Atkinson

Presented by Ainslie and Gorman Arts Centres and Little Dove Theatre art

Ralph Wilson Theatre, 28^th November to 3^rd December

Reviewed by Bill Stephens

Oliver Levi-Malouf and Raoul Craemer 
Photo: Andrew Sikorski

Presented as the final work in the 2017 Ralph Indie season, “Tristan: A Song for the Superior Man” is an experimental ensemble work, performed by four men and one woman, which sets out to explore the notion of what it takes to be a good man. Combining physical theatre, story, song, dance with strong butoh elements, Miller, and her collaborators,  have taken a series of stories, some the experiences of her cast, others from various sources, and used them for the basis of a clever work laden with arresting images.

Excellent sound and lighting, a minimalist design, and a quintet of committed, talented actors, has resulted in an intriguing production which puzzles and fascinates, while challenging its audience to ponder the issues it raises.

It begins with a half-naked man furiously exercising himself to exhaustion, before slowly dressing and joining four others dressed in blue business suits. A mirror ball flashes as a drag-queen belts out “I Need a Hero”, while the suited quartet perform a unison routine, their faces contorted by desperately fixed smiles.

Slowly they begin to undress the drag queen, then, one by one, share stories commenting on their experiences of maleness. One, compellingly narrated by Chris Endrey, tells of a gentle musician driven to violence by a wife who is herself infuriated by his insistence on being a “good man”.

The episodes are executed slowly and deliberately, butoh style, which sometimes invites boredom. One long voice-over monologue, in which an addled female tortured herself trying to rationalise gender issues, would certainly benefit from judicious editing. However the direction is so artful, and the individual performances so skilful, that the very slowness itself becomes mesmeric, allowing the observer to study every move, and wonder what the next might be.

Because the intention behind many of the episodes is not always clear, each audience member will have their own interpretation according to their individual experience. However, as an experimental production, “Tristan: A Song for the Superior” certainly justifies the Ralph Indie imprimatur in its embrace of innovation and experimentation. For those willing to embrace the experience, it provides a challenging, unusual, meticulously crafted and surprisingly entertaining theatrical experience.

This review also appears in Australian Arts Review. www.artsreview.com.au

WHY DO THEY SHUT ME OUT OF HEAVEN?

Art Song Canberra

Susan Ellis – soprano

Dianna Nixon - piano/voice

Wesley Music Centre, Forrest 26 November

Reviewed by Len Power

A program with texts by Patrick White, Mary Gilmore and Emily Dickinson might sound like it could be a bit heavy-going, but, combined with the music of Peter Sculthorpe, Vincent Plush and Aaron Copland and the fine singing of Susan Ellis and piano and dialogue accompaniment by Dianna Nixon, the audience was treated to a memorable concert.

‘Patrick White Fragments’, with music by Peter Sculthorpe was first performed in 2009 as part of ‘The Voss Journey’.  It’s a sensuous, delicate short work that was sung by Susan Ellis with great precision.

It was a rare opportunity to hear ‘The Plaint Of Mary Gilmore’ song cycle by Vincent Plush.  A famous Australian now known to most of us only as a portrait on the ten dollar note, Mary Gilmore had a colourful life which the song cycle describes in great detail.  Vincent Plush has produced a major work in which the music is woven around the texts of Gilmore’s letters, describing three distinct periods of her life.

Susan Ellis

Susan Ellis captured the forthright character of this fascinating woman extremely well in her vocal performance.  Dianna Nixon provided strong piano and dialogue accompaniment and she was joined on piano by Tilda Blackbourn-Rooney for a well-played short sequence requiring four hands.

It was a surprise to discover that the composer, Vincent Plush, was in the audience.  He advised us that he had not heard a performance of his complete song cycle in over 30 years.  It’s a work that should be performed more often.

Dianna Nixon and Susan Ellis

In the second half of the program, Susan Ellis sang the ‘Twelve Poems of Emily Dickinson’ with music by Aaron Copland.  The unique language of one of America’s greatest poets fit beautifully with Copland’s music giving a sense of the country and its people in the mid-1800s.  Susan Ellis gave a hauntingly sensitive and emotionally honest performance of this work, completing an enjoyable afternoon concert.

Photographs by Peter Hislop

 

This review was first published in the Canberra City News digital edition of 27 November 2017.

Len Power’s reviews are also broadcast on Artsound FM 92.7’s ‘On Stage’ program on Mondays from 3.30pm and on ‘Artcetera’ from 9.00am on Saturdays.

HOT TO TROT

Project directed by Ruth Osborne

Lighting design by Guy Harding

Presented by QL2 Dance

Gorman Arts Centre, 25^th and 26^th November 2017

Reviewed by Bill Stephens

Now in its 19^th Year, QL2’s “Hot to Trot” initiative offers the opportunity to young budding choreographers who have participated in other QL2 projects, to spread their wings and discover their own creative voice through creating their own original work. To this end, Ql2 offers them support in providing dancers, mentoring, technical facilities and studio time to develop their creations.

This year 10 young artists stepped up to create the two films and eight dance works which made up the program. Some for the first time, and others building on experience gained in previous programs.

Besides participating in works by other choreographers, Patricia Hayes Cavanagh created an interesting short film “Blank Face, Busy Hands” which focussed on how people express emotion through their hands. Filming her subjects against a blank wall, concentrating on just their hands as they expressed opinions on a variety of subjects, Hayes Cavanagh produced a surprisingly lyrical and enlightening result.

Her dance work, “Get Your Kicks on Route 66”, was a charming exploration of the interactions between three young people on a road trip, beautifully portrayed by Caspar Lischner, Ruby Ballantyne and Walter Wolffs, all of whom contributed works of their own to the program.

Ruby Ballantyne’s work, “Our Room 17”, was perhaps the most accomplished work of the evening. Focussing on the notion of comfort, Ballantyne incorporated a large bed, a colourful backdrop and five dancers, including herself, in a beautifully realised and inventive work, depicting the charming interactions between the dancers as they shared a rainy afternoon in a cosy bedroom. The work was funny, perceptive and joyously danced.

 

"Our Room 17" - Choreographed by Ruby Ballantyne.

Photo by Lorna Sim

Walter Wolffs expressed his concerns regarding the treatment of refugees, in an abstract work entitled “Aliens”. The work commenced dramatically, the music was well-chosen and the costumes for the three dancers were thoughtfully designed, but despite some interesting ideas, the choreography failed to convey any clear intent. 

This was also a problem for Eve Buckmaster and Ursula Taylor who tackled the idea of relocation with their work “Moving Home”, which they performed themselves. Costumed in transparent white boilersuits the two dancers performed a series of intricately choreographed manoeuvres, which while interesting and admirably performed, did not really convey much about their central idea.

Ursula Taylor and Eve Buckmaster in "Moving Home"

Photo: Lorna Sim

Ursula Taylor and Caroline De Wan performed Milly Vanzwol’s, “Critical Point”, a dramatic work which commenced unnervingly with a scream in the darkness. However, despite dramatic sound and lighting, the choreography was unable to sustain the promise of its opening moments. Dancing in Caroline De Wan’s “Comfort Ending”, Vanzwol gave a riveting performance as a person coping with the challenges of approaching adulthood. Performed in a setting comprising a large lounge chair surrounded by four lamps, this work impressed with its inventive use of lighting and sound.

Vanzwol also performed in Alison Tong’s work, “The Infinite Wait and its Three Emotions”, a delightful light-hearted work depicting anxiety, excitement and boredom through the friendship of three hitchhikers.  Friendship was also the central theme of Natsuko Yonezawa’s charming short film “Habitus” which opened the program. “Habitus” featured Rifka Ruwette, Alison Tong, Walter Wolffs and Sarah Long as four friends fooling around while exploring dance moves in a studio.

"Does School Fit 7.6 Billion ?" - choreographed by Caspar Ilschner.

Photo: Lorna Sim

Friendship and inclusion was also at the centre of Caspar Ilschner’s ambitious work “Does School Fit 7.6 Billion?” which questioned how schooling is not suitable for all individuals. Ilschner worked with a cast of six dancers who manipulated three stools in a series of cleverly choreographed sequences, to achieve an always entertaining and beautifully resolved work.

Given that several of the young choreographers featured in this program have ambitions to make careers in dance, “Hot to Trot” not only provides an absorbing and entertaining evening of dance, but also offers a fascinating insight into the future of contemporary dance, and the people who will possibly shape it.

   

Carolyn De Wan and Ursula Taylor in "Critical Point" - choreographed by Milly Vanzwol

Photo: Lorna Sim

                                                              

An edited version of this review was published in the digital edition of  CITY NEWS on 27th November 2017.

ARTIST OF THE YEAR

Commitment and inclusiveness – Liz Lea named “Citynews” Artist of the Year

by Frank McKone

A dance maker and director, whose work emphasises participation across all ages and abilities, was tonight named 2017 “Citynews” Artist of the Year at the 27th ACT Arts Awards Night at Canberra Museum And Gallery, 27 November 2017.

Liz Lea Study for RED
Photo: © Nino Tamburri
Courtesy, Michelle Potter, michellepotter.org

International performer and choreographer Liz Lea, who trained at London Contemporary Dance School and Akademi in London, and Darpana Academy in India, specialising in contemporary and classical Indian dance and martial arts, and who is an Associate Artist at QL2, Canberra’s Youth Dance Company, won a close contest from among four highly qualified nominees from visual arts, dance, music and theatre.

The Canberra Critics’ Circle, which judges the award, selected Ms Lea, recognising the impact of her contribution to dance in Canberra, particularly through her inspirational leadership in initiating, planning, designing, managing and directing the inaugural BOLD Festival in March 2017, with an emphasis on Australian Indigenous dance heritage.

Ms Lea, the Circle said, was remarkable for the artistic quality of her own choreography and performance, for her ability to attract top-class Australian and international dance figures to the Festival, and for her willingness and capacity in creating dance with young people through to senior citizens, saying “Our present lies in our past – BOLD celebrates the changes that come with age” and with workshops covering Dance for Disability, Inclusivity, Indigenous, Elders, Men, Indian, Cabaret, Bellydance and more.

Characteristic of her leadership were the events at venues such as the National Library of Australia and the National Portrait Gallery as part of the BOLD Festival celebration of dance as a way to promote healthy ageing, exploring how creativity can benefit health, in talks, presentations, performances and discoveries by Dr Stephanie Burridge, Dr Garry Lester, Julie Dyson AM, and many more.

In the ceremony at the Canberra Museum and Gallery, Ms Lea was presented with a framed certificate, $1000 cheque and a porcelain bowl by Canberra ceramic artist Tania Vrancic.


The Dance Panel especially noted Ms Lea’s “unwavering commitment” and “charismatic leadership” in promoting dance in the ACT.  The full citation read: For her unwavering commitment to, and focus on, making, directing and promoting dance in the ACT, in particular for the inclusiveness that characterises her work and for her charismatic leadership of the inaugural BOLD Festival in March 2017.



2017 Canberra Critics Circle
Kerry-Anne Cousins . Jane Freebury . Jennifer Gall . Meredith Hinchliffe . Cris Kennedy . Rob Kennedy . John Lombard . Alanna Maclean . Graham McDonald . Frank McKone . Ian McLean . Helen Musa . Simone Penkethman . Michelle Potter . Len Power . Samara Purnell . Bill Stephens . Anni Doyle Wawrzynczak . Clinton White . Peter Wilkins . Joe Woodward

The full list of Canberra Critics’ Circle Award recipients is as follows:

Dance
For her outstanding contribution to dance in the ACT through her photography of dance, and her 2017 exhibition of dance photographs Enigma.
Lorna Sim

Dance
For their moving and elegiac dance work That Extra ‘Some’, in celebration of a remarkable friendship.
Liz Lea and Katie Senior

Literature
For her essay collection, Things That Helped, a self-aware, emotionally challenging weaving together of critical theory, artistic forays and personal experiences to comment on the subject of post-partum depression.
Jessica Friedman

Literature
For giving impetus to Canberra poets, both established and new, through his imprint, Recent Work Press. Established on a cost-recovery and profit-sharing model, this has brought contemporary poetry to light in an accessible and affordable way.
Shane Strange

Literature
For his initiative in establishing the eclectic poetry night Bad!Slam!No!Biscuit! which, since 2009, has been part of the National Folk, Canberra Fringe, and Multicultural Festivals, and Corinbank. And especially for curating The Salt Room poetry and performance nights at Ainslie and Gorman Arts Centres.
Andrew Galan

Theatre
For their excellent production of Summer of the Seventeenth Doll by Ray Lawler, a welcome revival of an Australian classic with heart.
Pigeonhole Theatre

Theatre
For achieving outstanding performances from actors in The Normal Heart by Larry Kramer for Everyman Theatre.
Karen Vickery

Theatre
For their superb ensemble production for Everyman Theatre of Alan Bennett’s The History Boys, imaginatively staged in the round.
Jarrad West and Chris Zuber

Theatre
For his perceptive direction of Arthur Miller’s moving modern tragedy A View from the Bridge for Canberra Repertory.
Chris Baldock

Theatre
For outstanding contributions to Canberra theatre as an actor and director and for her entrepreneurial role in taking Pigeonhole Theatre to the 16th Mondial du Théâtre in Monaco.
Jordan Best

Visual Arts
For her monumental, ambitious, and ephemeral public art work that, in confounding perceptions of dimensionality and place, coloured our world and blew our minds, Pattern Logic at Regatta Point.
Katy Mutton

Visual Arts
For his marvellously curated exhibition that displayed technical virtuosity and profound understanding and empathy over two decades with pressing contemporary issues of dispossession and alienation, Modern Times at ANU Drill Hall Gallery.
Robert Boynes

Visual Arts
This engaging, delightful and cleverly imagined exhibition celebrated a year in the life of the artist through daily acts of observation and drawing, Three Hundred and Sixty Six, at Canberra Contemporary Arts Space, CCAS Manuka.
Waratah Lahy

Visual Arts
For her moving exhibition, in which we shared her grief symbolised by the sea crashing against the jagged, rugged, rocky coast and were enthralled by the surging spray that she captured in paint, The Sea Paintings at Nancy Sever Gallery.
Elisabeth Kruger

Visual Arts
For her impressive exhibition that revealed the depth of investigation and innovation of her preoccupation with the exciting material and sculptural qualities of glass, and highlighted her contribution to raising the profile of contemporary studio glass in Canberra, The Land: a Twenty Year Survey at Canberra Museum & Gallery.
Kirstie Rea

Visual Arts
For her imaginative and innovative installation work that was perfectly suited to the glass-walled space of Gallery 4, Canberra Museum & Gallery. This work, constructed in fibre, was a complex exploration of the nature of drawing in a three-dimensional space that drew the viewer into a narrative that allowed innumerable viewpoints of a previously two-dimensional construct, Anatomy of a Drawing.
Hannah Quinlivan

Musical Theatre
For the excellence of the production values and performance achieved with its Canberra Theatre production of Wicked.
Free Rain Theatre Company

Musical Theatre
For joint direction of the musical Spring Awakening for Phoenix Players. Their original vision was realised with great skill. They obtained performances with true emotional depth from their cast. The overall result was a show of enormous impact.
Kelly Roberts and Grant Pegg

Musical Theatre
For her beautifully realised performance as Roxie Hart in The Canberra Philharmonic Society’s production of Chicago.
Vanessa de Jager

Musical Theatre
For their excellent adaptation of the original Bob Fosse routines and their additional circus, mime, advanced tap and comic choreography for the Canberra Philharmonic Society production of Chicago.
Hannah Carey and Emily Appleton

Musical Theatre
For the excellence of the production values and performance achieved with its production of Avenue Q.
Supa Productions

Film
For their achievement in steering a project with a seven-figure budget, using local talent, local resources and building on unique locations in and around Canberra to produce a speculative sci-fi thriller that gained recognition at film festivals overseas and at home, Blue World Order.
Che Baker, Tim Maddocks, Sarah Mason

Film
For the achievement in production and post-production, showcasing the maturity and depth of the Canberra film industry with an appealing teen drama that has secured post-theatrical rights with Disney, Rip Tide.
SilverSun Pictures

Music
For her quirky, eclectic, playful hour-long composition, 7 Great Inventions of the Modern Age.
Sally Greenaway

Music
For their excellently conceived and performed concert of Northern Lights in the Fitters’ Workshop, a quite magical confluence of ideas and music in an acoustic space that was just right on a sunny winter afternoon.
Oriana Chorale

Music
For her leadership as vocalist, flautist and songwriter of the jazz band Bella Groove, and for the group’s entertaining launch of the new album City Lights at Ainslie Arts Centre.
Elise Walsh

Music
For having turned Smith’s Alternative into a recognised and sought-after hub of music performance around the year, offering encouragement and a venue to poets and musicians – jazz, folk and classical.
Nigel McRae

Music
For her excellent performance, rich tonal quality, obvious passion in presentation, and her crystal-clear diction as Gabriel/Eve in the SCUNA production of Haydn’s The Creation at Wesley Uniting Church.
Rachael Duncan

Music
For leading the Canberra Youth Orchestra as concertmaster in the concerts of the 2017 season celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the CYO, and for playing her solos with flair.
Helena Popovic

Music
For their performance of 10 new works in The Australian Miniatures for Carillon concert at the Canberra International Music Festival, transporting the audience to an extraordinary dimension encompassing the intimate space around the instrument and reaching into the distance, seemingly to the Brindabellas.
Lyn Fuller and Thomas Lau

Liz Lea
Photo by Lorna Sim

HOT TO TROT

QL2 Dance

Project Director: Ruth Osborne

Gorman House to 26 November

Reviewed by Len Power 25 November 2017

In this year’s ‘Hot To Trot’, the QL2 dancers and choreographers showed once again that dance has a secure future in Australia.  Ten young artists presented individually choreographed works brimming over with imagination and expertise.

This year, two choreographers presented their work on film.  Natsuko Yonezawa gave us ‘Habitus’ and Patricia Hayes Cavanagh produced ‘Blank Face, Busy Hands’.  Yonezawa’s work was more straightforward but visually interesting with its jump cutting.  Cavanagh’s work showed great imagination in its concept and use of film as a choreographic medium.

All eight other works presented live were of a high standard both in theme and realization with strong dancing by all involved.  As an audience member, the works that stand out are often those you most identify with from your own life experience.

‘Comfort Ending’ by Caroline De Wan was a highly atmospheric work danced very well by Milly Vanzwol.  There was particularly clever use of light and sound in this item.

Walter Wolffs presented ‘Aliens’, a strong work about foreign immigrants with nice group and individual work by the dancers, a clear concept and a clever ending.

‘Critical Point’ by Milly Vanzwol displayed a palpable tension in its fight or flight theme with expert dancing by Ursula Taylor and Caroline De Wan.

‘Our Room 17’ by Ruby Ballantyne used sly humor in a colourful setting to create a work that really engaged the audience and was performed very well by herself and four other dancers.

‘Caspar Ilschner’s ‘Does School Fit 7.6 Billion?’ was a fine work with a very clear theme, great use of music and strong performances by the dancers.

The lighting design for each of the works must be quite a challenge and Guy Harding has done an excellent job not only designing but operating the light cues with the precision demanded by dance.

‘Hot to Trot’ is a thoroughly enjoyable yearly event.  Next year is QL2’s 20^th year.  That certainly deserves a celebration!

Len Power’s reviews are also broadcast on Artsound FM 92.7’s ‘On Stage’ program on Mondays from 3.30pm and on ‘Artcetera’ from 9.00am on Saturdays.

Saturday night at Improvention 2017

Over an extended weekend (Nov 17-21) The Street Theatre hosted Impro ACT’s Improvention 2017, five days of workshops and performances.

There are plenty of improvised theatre traditions in the world and ‘impro’ is more than an acting exercise.

A brief visit on Saturday night was driven by a curiosity about the work of visiting director Charlotte Gittins.

Gittins is part of a company in the UK that does Jane Austen improvisations and here’s a sample.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wG2bHujctXc&t=24s

Saturday night was only a small part of a five day programme of workshops and performances. The first half channelled Homer, myths and legends and the rhetoric of dozens of fantasy novels and films accompanied by percussionist Gary France who gave such energy and atmosphere to the far more serious reading of the Iliad a few months ago. It is hard to sustain the epic. I sometimes think we have lost the knack. But there were strong moments and heroes and villains and a great use of a mysteriously lit upstage platform behind a scrim.

The second half had Gittins on a mike acting as a narrator for an Austenish tale of balls, unrequited love and servants who know their place (but have a much more interesting life below stairs than suspected.) She shaped the performers’ work with good humoured and challenging suggestions for what the next scene should be.

Part of the interest was in watching the performers attempt to follow a style and sustain it and keep it convincing. And that applied to the epic as well as the Austen.

Part drama workshop, part theatre sports and part of a much bigger tradition than the one that depends on writing the words down.

And even when the words are written down we still don’t know exactly how Shakespeare did ‘Exit, pursued by a bear’.

http://impro.com.au/about-impro-theatre-act/

Alanna Maclean

THREE SISTERS



Eryn Jean Norvill as Masha. Alison Bell as Olga. Miranda Daughtry as Irina
in the Sydney Theatre Company production of Three Sisters. Photo: Brett Boardman

 

Three Sisters by Anton Chekov.

Translated and adapted by Andrew Upton. Directed by Kip Williams. Assistant director. Jada Alberts.  Designer Alice Babidge. Lighting designer. Nick Schlieper. Composer and sound designer.  The Sweats. Sound designer. Nate Edmondson. Voice and text coach. Charmian Gradwell. Sydney Theatre Company. The Drama Theatre. Sydney Opera House . November 10 – December 16 2017. Bookings:  www.sydneytheatre.com.au or (02) 92501777.

Reviewed by Peter Wilkins

To see Kip Williams’s wonderfully staged production of Chekov’s Three Sisters in Andrew Upton’s fiery and theatrically explosive adaptation and translation is to imagine the special relationship between playwright, Anton Chekov and the Moscow Arts Theatre’s Konstantin Stanislavski.  From the opening birthday preparation with coloured balloons, inflated by Olga at the gas cylinder, to the revelry of the New Year’s Eve celebrations and Masha’s obsessive dance and the image of the teacher, circling the troubled Irina on a bicycle around an open stage, Williams skilfully choreographs a changing stagescape of dreams and desires, of fateful fortunes, shattered hopes and entrapped longings. This Sydney Theatre Production of Chekov’s tragi-comedy must loom large as one of the funniest, saddest, most disturbing and most profound productions that I have seen. Every moment is carefully and sensitively portrayed as a lesson in Life.

Miranda Daughtry, Anthony Brandon Wong and Alison Bell
STC's Three Sisters. Photo; Brett Boardman

Chekov’s characters assume iconic status. We have seen many of them in other plays by the country doctor with a keen eye for the human condition. Williams has cast his production with appreciation of the circumstances that place each character in the same situation and yet makes each uniquely different in character. Masha (Eryn Jean Norvill), Irina (Miranda Daughtry) and Olga (Alison Bell) live with their brother Andrei (Brandon McClelland), a councillor, and his domineering wife, Natasha (Nikki Shiels) in the parental home. Their world is predictable, determined by tradition and expectation. It is a world that suffocates, stifles, and conforms. Each character is torn apart by desire, thwarted by circumstance and tormented by Life’s unerring confinement. Olga struggles to preserve the memory of her father, now deceased a year, and uphold his legacy. Masha, trapped in a her marriage to the teacher Kulygin (Chris Ryan), longs for the unrestrained, passionate love of her colonel, Vershinin (Mark Leonard Winter ), a married man with two daughters. Irina longs to escape the barren existence of her life and work as a post office clerk and escape to her home, to Moscow. She rejects the admission of love by Tusenbach (Harry Greenwood), only to be bereft of hope and resigned to live out her days without love.

Chris Ryan, Mark Leonard Winter and Eryn Jean Norvell
in STC's Three Sisters. Photo Brett Boardman

Stanislavski’s search for truth and Chekov’s affectionate portrayal of the flawed inhabitants of his town and time lie at the very core of this production. Williams and Upton have not constructed an authentic portrait of Tsarist Russia. And yet, we can imagine ourselves to be witnessing Chekov’s characters in their time as easily as we can suppose the characters to be living out the attitudes and emotion of our age. Director and writer have identified the burning motivation of Chekov’s characters. A stellar cast is flung with all the desires, fears and frustrations of readily recognizable characters, headlong into the twenty first century against the backdrop of Chekov’s story of people trapped within the troubled years of pre-revolutionary Russia. Anachronism does not defy truth. It illuminates the universal humanity of all peoples and all ages and speaks with force and truth to the audiences of our time. If you search for the realism of Chekov’s age, you may be disappointed. Do not be concerned by Olga and Masha, dressed in jeans or the expletives erupting from Masha’s mouth in torrents of frustration.  If you look for the true nature of humanity, a universal truth will be revealed in a production that is honest, powerful and revealing.

Harry Greenwood and Mark Leonard Winter
in STC's Three Sisters. Photo: Brett Boardman

I am struck by the Sydney Theatre Company production, not because I am exposed to Chekov’s world, although that is implicit within the action and words of the characters, but because I see all humanity revealed through the lives and longings of the three sisters, the jealousies and rages of the frustrated, the failings of the vulnerable and the weak, the injustices of class, the violence within the heart and minds of the human condition and the transient passage of all people’s fleeting mortality. Such is the mirror held up to Nature in Williams’s production of Three Sisters.  We laugh. We cry. We dream. We die. It is this lesson in Life that makes this production of Three Sisters compelling and must see theatre.