Three Sisters by Anton Chekhov

Forget Moscow and pre-revolutionary Russia. Dimitris Xanthopoulos stages Anton Chekhov’s “Three Sisters” (1901) on the Main Stage of Onassis Stegi, from the 16th to the 27th January 2019, in the belief that every place and every era finds itself on the point of rupture, in a state of constant turmoil. He does retain the military environment of the provincial town, though, in which the three daughters and only son of a dead general now find themselves. They nurture a burning desire to return to the idealized city of their childhoods. But they are not in a position to make this happen.

All cities are the same. There’s no point fantasizing about a life "somewhere else". The "Three Sisters" come along with an outstanding cast (Aris Armaganidis, Giorgos Valais, Mando Giannikou, Kalliopi Kanellopoulou-Stamou, Vasilis Karamboulas, Aris Balis Antonis Miriagos, Nikolitsa Drizi, Angeliki Papathemeli, Thodoris Skyftoulis, Giorgos Stamos, Rebecca Tsiligaridou, Giorgos Frintzilas) to remind us of that.

“They sink into a state of inertia, into the fantasy of a ‘life’ in some ‘Moscow’ or other. Trapped within themselves, they lose touch with reality. Beyond the four walls of their home, they fall apart. This confrontation with Outside lies at the heart of the production. And this confrontation is all our stories — our anguished struggle to find our place in a world into which we were thrust, without reason or cause”, the director notes. They would like to live somewhere else. Would you?

Credits

Translation: Alexis Kalofolias, Dimitris Xanthopoulos
Director: Dimitris Xanthopoulos
Settings and Costumes: Eleni Manolopoulou
Music: Alexis Kalofolias
Movement: Vaso Giannakopoulou
Lighting Design: Tasos Palaioroutas
Assistant Director: Dimitra Mitropoulou
Production Manager: Rena Andreadaki

Cast
Andrei: Aris Armaganidis
Natasha: Rebecca Tsiligaridou
Olga: Mando Giannikou
Massa: Angeliki Papathemeli
Irina: Kalliopi Kanellopoulou Stamou
Kulygin: Vasilis Karamboulas
Vershinin: Antonis Miriagos
Tuzenbach: Giorgos Frintzilas
Solyony: Aris Balis
Chebutykin: Giorgos Valais
Fedotik: Giorgos Stamos
Ferapont: Thodoris Skyftoulis
Anfisa: Nikolitsa Drizi

Produced by: Onassis Stegi

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“The charm of Chekhov’s plays lies not in their dialogue or their plot, but in the meaning hidden beneath the words, in the pauses and the silences, in the protagonists’ inner action”, wrote the first director of Anton Chekhov’s works, Konstantin Stanislavski.

In Dimitris Xanthopoulos’ production, the lead role of the younger sister, Irina, is played by an 18-year-old non-professional, Kalliopi Kanellopoulou-Stamou, who dazzled audiences with her talent at the Onassis Youth Festival. This is the third time Onassis Stegi will be staging a work by Anton Chekhov. The first was in 2015 with the "Cherry Orchard" directed by Nikos Karathanos, the second in 2016 with "Who left this fork here?", a wired stage anatomy of the third act of "Three Sisters" directed by Daniel Fish as part of the “Made in USA” festival. Dimitris Xanthopoulos is staging "Three Sisters" ten years after his directorial baptism of fire with Chekhov’s "The Seagull".

About the author

Anton Chekhov

Born in Lake Taganrog on the Sea of Azov into a family of merchants who later went bankrupt and were forced to sell the family’s ancestral home and flee to Moscow (see the "ancestry" of the cherry orchard that’s for sale in the play of the same name), Anton Chekhov (1860-1904) is the pioneering author of a series of masterpieces: "Platonov", "Ivanov", "The Seagull", "Uncle Vanya", "Three Sisters", "The cherry orchard".

As well as a playwright, he was also a daring doctor and researcher. He crossed Siberia to reach Sakhalin Island, a penal colony on the Pacific, to study the appalling living conditions of the prisoners, and dedicated himself to fighting the cholera epidemic that had broken out in the Russian countryside — the natural landscape in which his later dramas would be set.

About the director

Dimitris Xanthopoulos

Actor and Director, founding member of the Pequod theater company (2010).

His collaboration with Onassis Stegi began in 2012, when he played in and co-directed, with the other members of the Pequod group, "The double book" by Dimitris Hadzis. The production was staged at Onassis Stegi as well as in Paris (Théâtre de la Ville) and Marseille (Villa Méditerranée).

In both the 2015-2016 and 2016-2017 seasons, he collaborated with the Onassis Youth Festival as a director, while during the 2016-2017 season, he directed Giorgios Vizyinos’ "Moskov-Selim" for the Teenage Stage. As an actor, he took part in the production of Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s "The Devils", directed at Onassis Stegi by Konstantin Bogomolov (2017).

As an actor, he has also collaborated with theaters including the Embros ("The sand diary"), the Sfendoni ("The Good Person of Szechwan"), the Theater on Kefallinias Street ("Mud"), the Pallas ("The third wedding wreath"), and has also played in films including "The Inn", "False alarm", "Soul kicking", "Glitter", "Welcome to All Saints", "A.C.A.B. ALL CATS ARE BRILLIANT", and "Zizotek".

He has directed the production "Case Work", Sophocles’ "Electra" and has co-directed, along with the other members of the Pequod company, Chekhov's "The Seagull", Dimitris Hadzis’ "From fifty-fifty in love", and Christos Aggelakos' "The two of us now".