Anton Chekhov’s suffering Russian gentlefolk sit so well in the wooden, candlelit Sam Wanamaker Playhouse it’s a wonder he’s not been staged here before. And this particular tale, of three sisters on a rural estate, steadily robbed of all hope, happiness and a future in Moscow, seems particularly well suited to a bitter winter night.
The emphasis on comedy in the early scenes of Caroline Steinbeis’s production makes the remorseless slide into tragedy all the more wrenching. She uses the lighting here cleverly, which not all directors do: a background electric glare dims to candelabra glow then the revealing intimacy of handheld flames illuminating single faces. At the end, harsh artificial illumination breaks over the characters’ bleak future.
