Three Sisters in print, on stage, out loud

Russian Thought

One can talk about “Three Sisters” for ages, for I am one of them and all three sisters at once, and also all the other characters at once.

Anton Pavlovich wrote about this in “Gooseberries”

A Moscow monthly, published from 1880. Both texts this episode runs on appeared in it first, in pre-reform spelling, in numbered “books”.

«Крыжовник» — Русская мысль, book VIII, 1898

First page. The footer reads книга VIII, 98 г. — the eighth book of the ninety-eighth year.

First page of Chekhov's story «Крыжовник» as first printed in the monthly Русская мысль, book VIII, 1898, set in pre-reform Russian orthography

Public domain · Anton Chekhov, Русская мысль (1898) · Wikimedia Commons

~ ~ ~

«Три сестры» — Русская мысль, no. 2, 1901

Драма въ 4-хъ дѣйствіяхъ. On the left the cast list — Ольга, Маша, Ирина, Тузенбахъ, Ферапонтъ, Вершининъ — then Act One, opening on Olga in her blue uniform dress.

Opening spread of Chekhov's «Три сестры» as first printed in Русская мысль, February 1901: the list of characters on the left page, the start of Act One on the right, in pre-reform Russian orthography

Public domain · Anton Chekhov, Русская мысль (1901) · Wikimedia Commons

Chekhov at the Art Theatre

The three sisters do not go to Moscow and continue only to dream of it until it becomes too late. The characters of “The Cherry Orchard” simply wait and undertake nothing until the estate is sold and axes begin to sound in the orchard.

Both plays were first staged at the Moscow Art Theatre — Three Sisters in 1901, The Cherry Orchard in 1904 — and both stagings were photographed.

Konstantin Stanislavsky as Vershinin, Three Sisters

Photograph by K. A. Fischer, Moscow Art Theatre, early 1900s

Konstantin Stanislavsky in the role of Vershinin in the Moscow Art Theatre production of Chekhov's Three Sisters, photographed by K. A. Fischer in the early twentieth century

Public domain · K. A. Fischer · Wikimedia Commons

~ ~ ~

The Cherry Orchard, Moscow Art Theatre, 1904

Production photograph

Not a box set: rooms opening off rooms, the house continuing past the frame.

Scene from the Moscow Art Theatre production of The Cherry Orchard, 1904, showing an asymmetrical interior with glimpses through into further rooms of the house

Public domain · reproduced in Alexander Bakshy, The Path of the Modern Russian Stage, 1918 · Wikimedia Commons

Three Sisters, out loud (МХАТ, 1947)

For Olga, Tulubaika has mosquitoes and cold, for Andrei — no ambitions and no decent restaurants, for Irina — absence of romance, for Baron Tuzenbach — absence of prospects, even for half-deaf Ferapont — there are no newspapers in Tulubaika because nothing literally happens.

The Moscow Art Theatre, which premiered the play on 31 January 1901, recorded it for radio in 1947 in Nemirovich-Danchenko’s staging — Yelanskaya as Olga, Tarasova as Masha, Stepanova as Irina, Boldumán as Vershinin.

Russian, unsubtitled, two hours fifty.

Public domain · Moscow Art Theatre, radio production 1947 · Wikimedia Commons