During the first few moments of the North Fork Community Theatre’s current production of Anton Chekhov’s “The Three Sisters,” it appears as if siblings Masha, Olga and Irina are nothing more than three screeching, giggling, Russian airheads.
But first impressions are fleeting ones and this one flees quickly. The sisters find their volume controls. Chekhov—in Peg Murray’s graceful translation—takes hold, and the interplay of fascinating, original and multifaceted characters moves forward like a chess game of inevitable fates that reveals, moment by moment, the interiors of the inhabitants of the sisters’ family estate outside of Moscow.
Ms. Murray’s mood is sustained nicely by a minimal but richly appointed set, and Hannah Grey’s spectacular and period-precise costumes carry that mood into a comforting dimension.
A cast of this size involves a variety of acting styles. But, again, as Ms. Murray’s dexterous direction takes hold, and the varying rhythms of Chekhov’s plot take over, the entire production becomes absorbing and ultimately rewarding.
The billeted soldiers on the estate go a long way toward supplying not only the romance but the conflict and ultimate tragedy of the play. Some call it a comedy, as Chekhov did, but it’s a comedy that also captures the tragedy of the gradual dissolution of a way of life, in much the same way “The Cherry Orchard” captures the same progression.
Jim Navarre is convincing, if not very affirmative, as Lieutenant Nicholai Tusenbach, the more philosophical of the three soldiers on the premises. Alan Stewart portrays the hair-triggered, volcanic Captain Vassily Solyny in a high energy, bullying way that nevertheless has room, in the closing moments of the drama, for another, slightly more human dimension.
Joe Martinsen is given the puzzling character of Feodor, Masha’s all-forgiving and slightly empty-headed husband. It’s not one of Chekhov’s most realized characters, but Mr. Martinsen does a credible job with him.
David Markel has been given the comedy character of Ivan Romanoff, an eccentric, tippling family and military physician. He emerges warmly and winningly, with a nicely sustained tenderness of feeling.
David Burt presents a strong, natural and multifaceted performance as Andrei, the sisters’ brother. It’s one of the most solid and natural turns of the evening, and it brings a comforting depth to the proceedings.
Not quite so natural is the performance of Lisa Dabrowski, who, as Natasha, Andrei’s wife, begins the evening as an unformed, shrinking violet and concludes it, with no transition, as a feeling-less, villainous super aristocrat who will do anything to gain control of the estate after a tragic fire destroys some of it.
Deborah Marshall skates around the surface of Irina, the most idealistic of the three sisters. That is until the closing moments of the play, when she digs into the impending coming to terms with the near destruction of her hopes for a far better life.
Amy Spoza handles the role of Olga—the sister left with the responsibility of the estate after its near destruction—with, after a somewhat uncertain beginning, a touching and ultimate sensitivity.
The strongest, most telling performances of the evening belong to Tom LeMothe as Colonel Alexander Ilyitch Vershinin, and Catherine Maloney as Masha, the third sister. Mr. LeMothe’s characterization is the strongest, most sustained and natural of the evening, and Ms. Maloney plays off it with wise subtlety. Their rising passion for each other is conveyed with impressive skill and their final, desperate parting is an enormously moving moment.
Since this is a Peg Murray production, there’s music, wisely selected and paced and beautifully sung by David Burt, Catherine Maloney and Tom LeMothe.
This “Three Sisters” is an absorbing revival of Chekhov’s comedy/drama, done with understanding, integrity and imagination.
“The Three Sisters” continues at the NFCT’s home in Mattituck on Friday and Saturday Evenings at 8 p.m. and Sunday afternoons at 2:30 p.m., through November 21. The box office number is 298-NFCT.
on Nov 8, 2010