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Hope brings infernal problems but fails to cause dramatic spark
THREE SISTERS ON HOPE STREET
Hampstead Theatre
THE man sitting behind me sneezed across my neck shortly after taking my seat and, after a painfully slow start to this laborious play, it got me thinking: what is the point of it all, and wouldn’t I rather be somewhere else?
This is the crux of Diane Samuels’ faithful adaptation of Anton Chekov’s Three Sisters, set in post-Second World War Liverpool and with all eyes turning to the formation of the new Jewish homeland.
It is a scholarly script, full of symbolic stage directions and pregnant pauses.
I found myself staring at an empty room for an extended period, no doubt to marvel in the set’s simplicity and unpack the themes before the next scene. We watch as a spinning top runs its course and a metronome ticks and tocks as the characters talk. Time is catching up with the three Lasky sisters, confined to a house on Hope Street.
It is 1946 and schoolteacher Gertie (Anne Francolini), married May (Susan Sylvester) and the young Rita (Samantha Robinson), along with their gambling brother Arnold (Ben Caplan), all yearn for a brave new world.
The arrival of a visiting trio of American servicemen brings new meaning to their lives. Each character becomes obsessed with belonging, striving to find their place.
Samuels’ debate is written with a kind of retrospective knowingness. Unlike Chekov’s original, written in a period of genuine hope in 1900, the audience know the characters’ ideals of the New Jerusalem would be dashed.
Samuels wrote the extraordinary Kindertransport, performed at Hampstead Theatre last year, and one of the best productions I have seen.
I overheard her during the interval explaining her latest offering had taken 15 years to write and it had all the hallmarks of an overwritten script. It felt mature, in a dull sense, lacking spark and creativity despite excellent performances from the entire cast.
Addressing high themes is all well and good for an audience full of qualified theatre buffs.
But I left not so much thinking about my own place in this world, but what belongs on stage.
Until March 29
020 7722 9301 |
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