Synopsis: Set in Russia at the turn of the century, the story centers on the Prozorov family---brother Andrei and his three sisters (Olga, Masha, and Irina.) The sisters have a burning desire to return to Moscow and the frivolity and happiness of their childhood days. Through the deaths of both parents, the disillusions of floundering marriages, and the boredom of an uncultured life in a small town, they hold out the hope that their original dreams can become reality if only they return to the city. Chekhov's work is an examination of the inevitability of growing older and wiser and the necessity of modifying our dreams as a result.

Cast:
Paul Giamatti .... Andrei Prozorov
Amy Irving .... Olga
Jeanne Tripplehorn .... Masha
Lilli Taylor .... Irina
Calista Flockhart .... Natalya Ivanovna
David Marshall Grant .... Kulygin
David Strathairn .... Vershinin
Eric Stoltz .... Baron Tuzenbach
Billy Crudup .... Slyony
Jerry Stiller .... Chebutykin
Robert Bogue .... Fedotik
Justin Theroux .... Rodez
Ben Hammer .... Ferapont
Betty Miller .... Anfisa
Keira Naughton .... Maid
Matthew Lawler, Saxon Palmer .... Soldiers
Gennady Gutkin, Gab Hegedus .... Musicians

Notes:
• Three Sisters is a lengthy play: two intermissions with on-stage time totaling over three hours.
• Some of David's co-stars in this play were actors he had worked with before, including Lilli Taylor, Jeanne Tripplehorn (The Firm), and Eric Stoltz (Memphis Belle). He would go on to work with Calista Flockhart again in the film version of A Midsummer Night's Dream, and work with director Scott Elliot again in A Map of the World.

Critical Praise & Commentary:
• "Still, it's a special treat to see what an actor like David Strathairn can make of this sad spiritual grammar, speaking in the future tense because life in the present is all too glum, all too boring, all too distant from anything noble.

"...Yet Strathairn plays down the more obvious romantic posturing associated with the role. His voice is pitched low and evenly; his gestures are few and small. He brings to mind an often-quoted Chekhov dictum, 'When someone expends the least amount of motion on a given action, that's grace.'

"That state of grace is hard to come by, and that Strathairn acquired it in the short period of rehearsal time afforded by Roundabout productions is itself a small miracle. Watching this spotty, nobly ambitious interpretation, one is tempted, in Chekhovian terms, to imagine a utopian system in American theater in which actors would have time to burrow fully under the skins of their characters.

"...Strathairn's exemplary performance alone makes it worth seeing." -Ben Brantley, New York Times

• "Strathairn's own finest moment is not connected to his affair with Masha, but in the scene where he describes finding his little girls after the fire, their mother gone, their faces full of terror... 'My God, I thought, what will these children have to go through the rest of their lives?'" -Elyse Sommer, Curtain Up

Related Links:
Roundabout Theatre Company - Three Sisters (off site)