EDMONTON -- Anton Chekhov put himself through medical school by writing short, humorous pieces for theatrical presentation. He always considered himself a comic writer, his plays a satire on the unhappy life and times of an aristocracy grown empty and useless.
The poor man must be spinning in his grave. Director Charlie Tomlinson has taken the great playwright's mature look at the melancholy lives of a trio of Russian sisters, Three Sisters, and whips it into frenetic melodrama that just won't stop. Gone are the small victories and gentle defeats, the inexorable feel that time passes slowly while picking away at the fabric of our lives. It's all sacrificed to a hyperventilated production that wears its subtext on its sleeve and abandons intimacy for constant movement.
Tomlinson doesn't seem to have much faith in his playwright because he drives home Chekhov's subtleties with a sledgehammer.
And if you add to that a series of bizarre non-sequiturs that yank you right out of Chekhov's small provincial town, you have the makings of a long, long evening.
Dr. Chebutykin (Brad Hodder) speaks with a broad Newfie accent and is given to breaking into drunken choruses. The second act starts off, for rather obscure reasons, in a formal Japanese garden and, at one point, the domineering Natasha (Amber Borotsik) breaks into a fiery Spanish dance. Why? Perhaps, because she can.
Solyony, the embittered captain, is played by a woman (Rachael Martens). Martens seems to be a capable actor but the cross-gender casting is arbitrary and adds little. And if a young actor like Monica Maddaford is going to play an 82-year-old baba, perhaps a little makeup might add to the effect - a babushka and good acting can only go so far.
Three Sisters begins on a note of optimism, although dark clouds of melancholy are already beginning to gather. The refined and educated Olga (Jessica Lowry), Masha (Rachael Johnston) and Irina (Erin Moon) are orphan sisters trying to make their way in a "rude and backward town."
They, and their ineffectual brother Andrey (Harry Judge), are Chekhovian aristocrats. Not rich or ambitious enough to break out of their mundane existence, they long for the life they knew when they were children in Moscow. They feel that work is noble and purifying but they either sleep every day until noon or hate the jobs they have taken up. The house is filled with hangers-on - mostly soldiers from the nearby garrison. They all bicker and argue, endlessly talking about how unhappy and unfulfilled they are.
What are we left with? Well, Mariko Heidelk's opulent and time-sensitive costumes and Lee Livingston's excellent lighting which creates dark, moody areas taking full advantage of Roger Schultz's expansive set.
Three Sisters is a beautiful play - rich with character and atmosphere. There is warmth, humour and, ultimately, hope. You should be wrenched by these unfortunates and their inability to recognize their lives for what they are and to invest their relationships with any commitment. But the human scale is lost. By the time the aristocratic Masha had to be peeled off the back of her departing lover and then, mounting one of three swings to sail high over the audience's head while declaiming lines about a brighter day tomorrow, I had long since become wrapped in a boredom as deep as any of Chekhov's characters.
Three Sisters, a production of Studio Theatre, runs at the Timms Centre until April 7.
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