Three Sisters

The RSAMD final year students and the Citizens theatre have begun a new relationship this year with the Springboards project, a collaborative work between the students and theatre world professionals. This year they have created two projects, Chekhov’s Three Sisters and a sister project, in the form of a new award winning play by Vassily Sigarev, a modern Russian playwright.

I did not manage to see both, but I did see the first night of Three Sisters. It was rather well timed, as there seems to be a resurgence of interest in Chekhov: a few weeks ago The Cherry Orchard was playing at the Lyceum in Edinburgh, and there is a new biography out, from the memoirs of his brother, Mikhail Chekhov. It could be seen as a safe choice, one of the most famous playwrights and authors in the world, associated with psychological interpretations of character and a whole new way of acting. However, Chekhov in many ways is not a safe choice, the plays are heavy on dialogue and Chekhov’s work goes hand in hand with naturalism, and the mass cluttering of the stage with meaningless every day objects is regarded as rather old fashioned. Springboards tackled this head on as in this performance it was the set that was the stand-out star, it was bold, refreshing and a lot of effort had gone in to both its design and production.

The first set was as much as you would expect in a performance of Chekhov, a few chairs scattered downstage and a long banqueting table filling the breadth of the upstage area. So I wasn’t quite prepared for the second act where a huge screen of wood represented a blocked up window. The wooden screen, which filled most of the backdrop area, was created out of pieces different in size, shape and colour, with randomly inserted pieces of furniture visible in amongst the mix. It was pierced through with slivers of orange/red light which served to illustrate the rampaging fire spreading through the town and the vulnerability of the sisters and their family, shut up in a house of wood.

The third set took it up another notch, as they made use of what many identify with rural Russia, the tall thin birch trees so beautifully described by Pasternak and Tolstoy. The birches hung from the grid and rested just above the ground, their bundles of roots just unable to take grip of the earth. In a sense a parallel with the sisters, rootless and unable to be happy in their provincial town, with the falling leaves dropping off one by one as their hopes, dreams and finally their friends leave them.

It was ambitious and it worked. I have high hopes for Springboards position in the future of Scottish theatre as it helps professionals to find new talent and fresh ideas and facilitates the students of design, acting, direction and production to find experience and to aid the transition from education to employment. I hope that this project helps to found new careers in Scottish theatre, we need more that do.

For more about The Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama visit the website at www.rsamd.ac.uk