Three Sisters, One Raving Bitch

Seattlest went to see the opening of Three Sisters at the Intiman last week, and we’re just dying to tell people about it.

Olga, Masha and Irina are the sisters in question. Natasha’s the bitch. How do we know? Because the night we went, someone in the audience shouted that she was. How’s that for live theater! You don’t get that at the Rep. Seattlest didn’t quite know what to think.

Anyway, this is a Chekhov play, which usually means angsty moping about, bad Russian accents, and an occasional seagull or cherry orchard. The key is to realize (Seattlest writes, cribbing furiously from online sources) that the environment of the play, the place and action (or lack thereof), are expressions of the internal realities of the characters.

Here, the three sisters got moved to some backwater while they were young, and all retain fond, impossible memories of how wonderful Moscow was, to comfort themselves with the fact that life hasn’t worked out quite the way they expected. As adapted by Craig Lucas, they’re variously depressed, idealistic, and self-sacrificing, but with a sense of humor. Like they realize that after all they’re Russians and likely screwed no matter what.

There’s a great ensemble cast, possibly the best Seattlest has ever seen at Intiman, and a set whose wintry birches makes you shiver and swear you can smell snow. The show runs through July 9th, and there really isn’t a bad seat in the house.