THREE SISTERS

I went to see Chekov’s “Three Sisters” at the Abbey today. It being Saturday I went to the afternoon matinee show. I was still a bit groggy from the long flight across the Atlantic and the attendant jetlag. The weather didn’t help – cold, overcast, blustery gusts with intermittent showers – a perfect Winter’s day.
The play is an adaptation by Brian Friel. In my mind I was expecting some kind of Irish theme, perhaps a retelling of the life of the Gore-Booth sisters and their part in the Irish Revolution. That was not to be. I could not figure out what it meant for the play to be adapted by Brian Friel as opposed to simply being directed by him. I thought the play was good but the acting was lackluster. I was never convinced that I had entered into a different world. It seemed to sprawl across the stage with no clear direction. I would like to read the play (I wished that I had done that before going to see it acted out) and see it again.