Canberra Reviews

If it’s food for thought you’re after, The Three Sisters has plenty to satisfy your appetite. This is a thoughtful play for a thoughtful audience, so if you’re in the mood for a bit of light entertainment you may leave the performance slightly drained. Nevertheless, Free Rain Theatre Company is to be commended for taking on Anton Chekhov’s ‘theatre of mood’ piece and bringing a new voice to this intricate story.

On the surface it sounds like a simple tale – three sisters face the challenges of life in rural Russia, forever yearning to return to their hometown of Moscow. Within this deceptively simple structure Chekhov deals with wide-ranging themes from the nature of happiness and progress to the roles of love and work in peoples’ lives. His story, like his characters, is layered and contradictory – this is not a play that can be pulled off by just any production company.

The key to Free Rain’s success with such heavy subject matter is considered casting. After a few missteps in previous productions, this time around each actor has a role that fits and, in some cases, allows them to display range and depth. Leah Baulch’s poise and sincerity when accessing darker emotions suits the mourning Masha. Dallas Bland brings a compelling combination of anxiousness and detachment to Andrey, the put-upon brother of the family. Lainie Hart makes the responsible Olga strong yet sympathetic, while Alison McGregor establishes Irina’s idealism carefully, without resorting to wide-eyed sugariness.

The talent to watch is Hannah Meredith, who inhabits the hyper-vigilant Natasha so completely it’s tempting to pass a sedative to her on stage. The senior members of the cast also manage to create humour with their characters while maintaining a sense of gravity. All that said, there were still a few performances that felt more like actors on a stage than characters brought to life.  

Director Catherine Mann has fostered confidence in her cast – a crucial facet of this production. There is a great deal to contend with here, but Mann has clearly worked through the layers of the play until her actors are comfortable. Despite the complexity of Chekhov’s language, there was just one slip-up, and many instances that brought out the poetry in the script. Mann has also understood the slow-burn quality of this play which, while genuinely oppressive at times, makes the characters’ emotional outbursts all the more powerful.

It may be a relatively small company, but Free Rain is consistently producing worthwhile theatre. This may not be the most uplifting of productions, but what it lacks in fun is more than made up for in quality.  
 

Free Rain Theatre Company
Three Sisters
By Anton Chekov

Venue: The Courtyard Studio
Dates: Friday 15 August - Saturday 30 August 2008
Tickets: Adult: $27.00, Concession: $22.00
Bookings: www.canberratheatre.org.au