Three Sisters

by Anton Chekhov, Richard Nelson (Translator), Richard Pevear (Translator), Larissa Volokhonsky (Translator)

Overview

After their father’s death, Olga, Masha, and Irina find life in their small Russian town stifling and hopeless. They long to return to Moscow, the bustling metropolis they left eleven years ago, but their brother Andrei’s gambling habits have trapped them in their small provincial lives. As the seventh play in the TCG Classic Russian Drama Series, playwright Richard Nelson and translators of Russian literature Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky continue their collaboration with a masterful new translation of Chekhov’s exploration of yearning and disillusionment.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781559369695
Publisher:	Theatre Communications Group
Publication date:	06/23/2020
Series:	TCG Classic Russian Drama Series
Pages:	96
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.40(d)

About the Author

Richard Nelson’s many plays include Illyria; The Gabriels: Election Year in the Life of One Family (Hungry, What Did You Expect?, and Women of a Certain Age); The Apple Family: Scenes from Life in the Country (That Hopey Changey Thing, Sweet and Sad, and Sorry, Regular Singing); Nikolai and the Others; Goodnight Children Everywhere (Olivier Award for Best Play); Franny’s Way; Some Americans Abroad; Frank’s Home; Two Shakespearean Actors; and James Joyce’s The Dead (with Shaun Davey; Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical). He has also written for film, namely the screenplays for Hyde Park-on-Hudson and Ethan Frome. He is the recipient of the PEN/Laura Pels Master Playwright Award and an Academy Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He is an Honorary Associate Artist of the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky have translated the works of Leo Tolstoy, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Nikolai Gogol, Anton Chekhov, Boris Pasternak, and Mikhail Bulgakov. Their translations of The Brothers Karamazov and Anna Karenina won the PEN Translation Prize in 1991 and 2002, respectively. Pevear, a native of Boston, and Volokhonsky, of St. Petersburg, are married and live in France.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"Right up there with the best ever Three Sisters (by Laurence Olivier, Jonathan Miller, Trevor Nunn, Field Day and the Katona Josef in Budapest) but a sensational breakthrough and a poetic revelation at the same time, and in its own gloriously idiosyncratic manner." – Michael Coveney, What’s On Stage (5 stars)

"Andrews has come up with a bracingly original vision: he turns the play inside out, bashes it around, and drops in anachronisms, yet his approach yields revelatory results. In the end, against the odds, this is a moving and absorbing Three Sisters" – Evening Standard

"This version does not set out to endear itself to traditionalists… has a jagged energy and a powerful sense of conviction" – The Independent

"Energising, modern… grabs some of the most thorny Chekhov questions about human existence with a firm unsentimental grip" – Huffington Post

"Profoundly moving… this is Chekhov refreshed and reimagined." – Guardian

"One of the most exciting Chekhovs in years… often hilarious yet, crucially, full of moments of stillness and pain" – Metro

"The textbook opposite of a cosy West End revival… gives a chill distillation of a comfortless vision present in the original" – The Telegraph

"Traditionalists may fulminate, but I was blown away." – Daily Mail

"A commendable job of reinvigorating the play, making it readily accessible by injecting the dialogue with suitably modern concepts." – London Theatre

Editorial Reviews

"Pevear and Volokhonsky are at once scrupulous translators and vivid stylists of English."

New Yorker

"Pevear and Volokhonsky are at once scrupulous translators and vivid stylists of English."

New Yorker

“Zestier and more colloquial than most translations… Letts' main achievement here is to make Chekhov more emotional, accessible and active.” – Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune

“A no-nonsense script by Pulitzer and Tony Award-winning Tracy Letts that blends compassion with tough love. Repeatedly, Letts delivers heartbreak on cue… I’ve seen over a dozen Three Sisters, but never has the final scene of the sisters’ solidarity after all the blows we see them suffer registered so hard.” – Lawrence Bommer, Chicago Theater Beat

"Highly recommended... Fascinating revival... has a speed and light, a sharpness and edgy heart that make it newly compelling." – Chicago Sun-Times

“Refreshingly blunt, provocative.” – Sam Hurwitt, The Reporter



“Zestier and more colloquial than most translations… Letts' main achievement here is to make Chekhov more emotional, accessible and active.” – Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune

“A no-nonsense script by Pulitzer and Tony Award-winning Tracy Letts that blends compassion with tough love. Repeatedly, Letts delivers heartbreak on cue… I’ve seen over a dozen Three Sisters, but never has the final scene of the sisters’ solidarity after all the blows we see them suffer registered so hard.” – Lawrence Bommer, Chicago Theater Beat

"Highly recommended... Fascinating revival... has a speed and light, a sharpness and edgy heart that make it newly compelling." – Chicago Sun-Times

“Refreshingly blunt, provocative.” – Sam Hurwitt, The Reporter

From the Publisher

Ivan R. Dee's excellent discussions are recommended.... Among the best of recent publications: a new adaptation of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is provided by Dorothy Louise: while it remains faithful to her intentions, Frankenstein's new look tailors a play for performance and provides a strong plot suitable for contemporary drama. Similarly does Anton Chekhov's Three Sisters, with Curt Columbus providing the new translation and Nicholas Rudall and Bernard Sahlins working their editing magic on both productions.

Library Bookwatch

Senelick . . . has done his job as scholar and translator nearly to perfection.

Weekly Standard