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3 Sisters on Hope Street
Hampstead Theatre Spring 2008

This new play by Diane Samuels and Tracy-Ann Oberman is openly an adaptation of Chekhov's classic, the provincial Russians yearning for Moscow in the 1890s transformed into Liverpool Jews dreaming of New York in the late 1940s.

That culture shift apart, the adaptation is a very close one, character for character, scene for scene, sometimes line for line.

The visiting soldiers are now American GIs, the offstage fire in Act Three is now an anti-Semitic riot, the plans of Tusenbach and Irina for a future of meaningful work now focus on Palestine, but essentially this is straight Chekhov in semi-modern dress.

Which raises the question 'Why?' Does the Jewish context illuminate Chekhov or Chekhov's structure illuminate the Jewish experience in 1946?

And the answer is essentially 'No'. What we have are two separate plays, one by Chekhov and one about English Jews, uneasily sharing the same stage and our attention.

Now, they are both worthy of our attention, in different ways, but their marriage is strained enough that the author-adapters might well have done better to begin their play afresh.

All the dramatic and emotional power of the evening comes from Chekhov. Witnessing May/Masha's doomed love for Vince/Vershunin, or the equally but differently doomed hopes of Rita/Irina and Tush/Tusenbach, or the decline into cuckolded nonentity of Arnold/Andrei is as moving as it is in any production of Chekhov's play.

On the other hand, it is interesting and thought-provoking to be told that many people, military and civilian, found peacetime disorienting after the intensity of war, and that some Jews might actually have had the advantage of being able to channel their energy and dedication toward Israel.

So, as long as it doesn't disturb you that your heart is engaged here and your brain engaged there, you can find a lot to hold you through the almost three hours of this adaptation.

Director Lindsay Posner anchors the play in its time and place while letting Chekhov's structure and rhythms prevail. Suzan Sylvester captures all the desperation of a May who senses a last chance being offered and taken away at age 35, while Finbar Lynch makes Vince quietly and unobtrusively attractive.

The role of Irina is underwritten in Chekhov, and Samantha Robinson can't do much with her counterpart, though Russell Bentley rightly makes Tush both earnest and a bit silly.

One of the few changes that actually enriches a character explains the Solyony figure's sourness by making him one of the soldiers who liberated Auschwitz, and Gerard Monaco makes us feel for a man who has seen Hell and now can't see anything else. The role of the old doctor/boarder, here Uncle Nate, is given more prominence than in the original, but all the charm and expertise of Philip Voss can't disguise the fact that he's an irrelevant time-filler.

Gerald Berkowitz

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Review - 3 Sisters on Hope Street - Hampstead 2008