Russian drama in four acts by Anton Chekhov, first performed in Moscow in 1901 and published as Trisestry in the same year. The Prozorov sisters (Olga, Masha, and Irina) yearn for the excitement of Moscow; their dreary provincial life is enlivened only by the arrival of the Imperial Army. The sisters' dreams of a new life are crushed when their brother marries a woman they consider ill-bred and mortgages the house; the army is withdrawn, and Irina's fiance is killed in a duel. The characters of Three Sisters are outstanding examples of Chekhovian boredom, longing, and listlessness. The playwright portrays the sisters' social aspirations with sensitivity and irony, using them as emblems of Russian middle-class pretensions and despair.

Chekhov's brilliant tale of the sisters' dream to return to Moscow, and the clash between duty and desire that keeps them in their garrison town, is rendered anew in Susan Coyne's vital new translation. She infuses all with a muscularity and humour even as heartbreak and betrayal insinuate themselves, and we are left standing alone with the sisters watching the parade go by -- right out of town.