Brightest Young Things

Three Sisters is for those who enjoy dramatic masterpieces, timeless complexes, and who are unemployed

“We recognize ourselves in the past and dream about the future, yet Chekhov illuminates the reality that all we ever truly have is the moment at hand, waiting to be seized.”
- Artistic Director, Allison Arkell Stockman

Three Sisters, performed by the Constellation Theatre Company and housed at The Source Theatre, provides a three-hour intimate experience with the audience sitting in on an upper-class Russian family’s existential journey on the meaning of life. The stage set up as a theatre in the round allows the audience to feel captivated and embraced in the family’s parlor, dining room and bedroom as we follow the sisters and their loved ones through their faux-adjustment to reality.

Throughout the entirety of the performance, I couldn’t help but think about the recurring themes that great masterpieces have endlessly touched upon: aspiration for the “American dream,” longing for some grand life purpose, and idealizing the future. You must have an existential attitude to enjoy this show, or else you may get sick of hearing about the problems constantly discussed by your philosophical buddies.

The three sisters are extremely well-educated and from the big city of Moscow, but then move to an unsophisticated, “ignorant” small town inhabited mostly by idling soldiers. The girls are unsatisfied with their menial lives and strive to find meaning in employment – they want to feel “fortunate” after a day of hard work. Three Sisters emphasizes that even the well-educated succumb to life’s hardships and that it is very easy to settle into an “intolerable life.”

As the district’s unemployment rate nears 12 percent, most people are now accepting jobs well beneath their education level. I imagine that the Constellation Theatre Group could be using this piece to highlight the troubles that its audience is facing today. Many of the unemployed are recent college graduates who are hopeful (possibly naïvely) about their future plans. This sentiment is expressed by Irina, the youngest of the three sisters. She is young, bright and settles into a job with which she is dissatisfied; she can only dream of returning to Moscow, where all of her problems will be solved. I couldn’t help but interchange Moscow with New York City throughout the show.

The actors of the Constellation Theatre Group were by far the best part of this performance. They embodied their characters with sensitivity and sincerity, and I felt like I was sitting in the sister’s distressed living room.

The sisters express that “life has stifled [them] like weeds.” If you see this show, your spirits might not be raised, but you might find a drinking partner in turn-of-the-century Russian household.

for details about the play:
http://www.constellationtheatre.org/ currently at residence at Source, 1835 14th St., NW

Previously in Live DC:

• 2/13: LiveDC: George Clinton & The Parliament-Funkadelic @ 930 Club
• 2/13: LiveDC: Veronica Falls/ Brilliant Colors @ Black Cat
• 2/13: LIVE DC: Steve Aoki/ Datsik/ Alvin Risk @ Fillmore
• 2/13: LiveDC: The Darkness @ 930 Club
• 2/9: LiveDC: Theophilus London @ 930 Club
• 2/9: Best Weekend Bets
• 2/8: LiveDC: Kathleen Edwards @ 930 Club
• 2/8: LiveDC: Thurston Moore/ Kurt Vile @ Black Cat
• 2/8: LiveDC: Thurston Moore/ Kurt Vile @ Black Cat
• 2/7: LiveDC: Demetri Martin @ Warner Theatre