Three Sisters Relaxed Performance information

Relaxed Performance 8th December @ 2.15pm Carne Theatre, LAMDA Running Time: 2 Hours 45 Minutes, including a 15 minute interval.

Content warnings: Contains adult themes, suicide references and scenes of a distressing nature including grief and death.

RELAXED PERFORMANCES AT LAMDA • You are welcome to come and go from the theatre as you need.

• There is a break-out room available.

• House lighting is on low throughout, never going to full black-out.

• Loud noises are reduced in sound level.

• No strobe lighting Is used.

• You are welcome to react to the show however you may need.

• At the end of this document is a show synopsis/sensory guide.

Here is a guide to sensory information symbols in this document: Indicates potentially loud or sudden noises

Indicates bright or sudden lighting changes

Indicates a sad or potentially distressing scene

Indicates fighting, or use of guns/weapons

Arriving at LAMDA

When you arrive at LAMDA, the box office is to your right. You should pick up your ticket here, using your name.

You will be asked to show proof of double vaccination using the NHS App, or a negative lateral flow result taken in the last 24 hours.

Unless you are exempt, you will be asked to wear a mask at all times while in the building.

Toilets are located right next to box office.

Toile

LAMDA staff will be wearing LAMDA branded T-Shirts. If you need any assistance whilst in the building, please ask them.

This is the Theatre Foyer. You may be asked to wait here until the house is open.

You will be shown how to get to the Linbury Theatre by an Usher.

This performance will take place in the Carne Theatre.

This is the entrance.

When you enter the theatre, an Usher will take your ticket from you. You are welcome to sit where you like.

This is what the stage will look like when you enter.

You can come and go from the space whenever you like.

The house lights will stay on low throughout the show.

There is a break-out space called ‘The Rittner Room’ which you are welcome to use at any point during the performance. It can be accessed via the stairs or lift in the main entrance foyer.

If you aren’t sure at any point during your visit where to go, please ask an usher.

Before the show begins, the actors will introduce themselves and the characters they are playing.

There is an interval in this performance. This will be indicated by the lights getting brighter. It will be 15 minutes long. You are welcome to stay in your seat.

An usher will let you know when the show is starting again. The house lights will dim.

The lights in the theatre will become brighter, and you can exit the theatre through the door you came in through.

At the end of the show the actors will come on and bow. You are welcome to clap at this point if you would like.

CHARACTERS:

Anita Adam-Gabay plays Irina Sergeyevna

Here is a picture of Anita

Josie Capone plays Olga Sergeyevna

Here is a picture of Josie

Daniel Bradley plays Nikolay Lvovich Tuzenbach

Here is a picture of Daniel

Mackenzie Larsen plays Natasha Ivanovna

Here is a picture of Mackenzie

James Lyon plays Fyodor Ilyich Kulygin

Calum Maclean plays Alexander Ignatevich Vershinin

Here is a picture of James

Here is a picture of Calum

Yasmine Meaden plays Masha Sergeyevna

Ashley O’Brien plays Vasily Vasilevich Solyony

Here is a picture of Yasmine

Here is a picture of Ashley

Kathrine Payne plays Anfisa and Vladimir

Peik Sirén plays Ferapont / Alexey

Here is a picture of Kathrine

Here is a picture of Peik

George Solomou plays Andrey Sergeyevna

Florian Stuendel plays Ivan Romanovich Chebutykin

Here is a picture of George

Here is a picture of Florian

SHOW SYNOPSIS / WHAT TO EXPECT Act one begins with Olga (the eldest sister) working as a teacher in a school, but at the end of the play she is made headmistress, a promotion in which she had little interest. Masha, the middle sister and the artist of the family (she was trained as a concert pianist), is married to Feodor Ilyich Kulygin, a schoolteacher. At the time of their marriage, Masha, younger than he, was enchanted by what she took to be wisdom, but seven years later, she sees through his pedantry and his clownish attempts to compensate for the emptiness between them. Irina, the youngest sister, is still full of expectation. She speaks of her dream of going to Moscow and meeting her true love. It was in Moscow that the sisters grew up, and they all long to return to the sophistication and happiness of that time. Andrei is the only boy in the family and the sisters idolize him. He is in love with Natalia Ivanovna (Natasha), who is somewhat common in relation to the sisters and suffers under their glance. The play begins on the first anniversary of their father's death, but it is also Irina's birthday and everyone, including the soldiers (led by Vershinin) bringing with them a sense of noble idealism, come together to celebrate it. At the very close of the act, Andrei asks Natasha to marry him.

Act two begins almost a year later with Andrei and Natasha married with their first child (offstage), a baby boy named Bobik. Natasha is having an affair with Protopopov, Andrei's superior, a character who is mentioned but never seen onstage. Masha comes home flushed from a night out, and it is clear that she and her companion, Lieutenant-Colonel Vershinin, are giddy with the secret of their mutual love for one another.

Little seems to happen but that Natasha manipulatively quashes the plans for a party in the home, but the resultant quiet suggests that all gaiety is being quashed as well. Tuzenbach and Solyony both declare their love for Irina.

(Interval) Act three takes place about a year later. There has been a fire in the town, and, in the crisis, people are passing in and out of the room, carrying blankets and clothes to give aid. Olga, Masha and Irina are angry with their brother, Andrei, for mortgaging their home, keeping the money to pay off his gambling debts and conceding all his power to his wife. However, when faced with Natasha's cruelty to their aged family

retainer, Anfisa, Olga's own best efforts to stand up to Natasha come to naught. Masha, alone with her sisters, confides in them her romance with Vershinin. Irina despairs at the common turn her life has taken, the life of a municipal worker, even as she rails at the folly of her aspirations and her education. Out of her resignation, supported in this by Olga's realistic outlook, Irina decides to accept Tuzenbach's offer of marriage even though she does not love him. Chebutykin drunkenly stumbles and smashes a clock which had belonged to the Prozorov siblings' late mother, whom he loved. Andrei then vents his self-hatred, acknowledges his own awareness of life's folly and his disappointment in Natasha, and begs his sisters' forgiveness for everything.

In the fourth and final act, outdoors behind the home, the soldiers, who by now are friends of the family, are preparing to leave the area. There is an undercurrent of tension because Solyony has challenged the Baron (Tuzenbach) to a duel, but Tuzenbach is intent on hiding it from Irina. He and Irina share a heartbreaking delicate scene in which she confesses that she cannot love him, likening her heart to a piano whose key has been lost. Just as the soldiers are leaving, a shot is heard, and Tuzenbach's death in the duel is announced shortly before the end of the play. Masha has to be pulled, sobbing, from Vershinin's arms, but her husband willingly, compassionately and all too generously accepts her back, no questions asked. Olga has reluctantly accepted the position of permanent headmistress of the school where she teaches and is moving out. She is taking Anfisa with her, thus rescuing the elderly woman from Natasha.

Irina's fate is uncertain but, even in her grief at Tuzenbach's death, she wants to persevere in her work as a teacher. Natasha remains in charge and in control of everything. Andrei is stuck in his marriage with two children, the only people that Natasha cares about, besides herself. As the play closes, the three sisters stand in a desperate embrace, gazing off as the soldiers depart to the sound of a band's march.

There is music playing at the start of the show.

The lights will dim and all the actors run on, placing flowers at the front of the stage.

A clock chimes.

.

The actor playing Vasily Vasilevich Solyony talks about killing himself.

Olga is very emotional, and cries.

A violin can be heard being played off-stage.

The actor playing Andrey is teased, and reacts by shouting really loudly. The actor playing Fyodor enters suddenly.

The Violin can be heard offstage again.

The actor playing Natasha runs on from behind the audience. They are obviously very upset and anxious about something.

The actors sing Happy Birthday.

The actor playing Fyodor teases Natasha, and she runs from him, very upset. Andrey follows her and asks her to marry him.

The lights dim, and the actors change the scenery. They light lots of candles, safely, on stage.

One of the actors carries a pen knife with them.

A letter is read, detailing how someone in the village has tried to kill themselves by poisoning.

The Doorbell Rings loudly. Shortly after, the lights go to blackout.

INTERVAL (The interval is 15 minutes long. During the interval the stage will clear to be very bare).

The lights will dim. The actor playing Fyodor, playing the accordion, will enter from behind the audience. The lights will go very red, and the actors will all enter the stage.

There has been a fire and they are laying out blankets to sleep on.

Natasha shouts at Anfisa and is really horrible about her.

The actor playing Ivan, the Doctor, enters singing from behind the audience. They are intoxicated.

He berates himself.

There is a loud rumbling noise.

There is a siren noise.

The Doctor smashes the family clock, which makes a loud noise and breaks. Irina is upset.

The actors playing Masha and Fyodor have an argument.

Irina is really upset at the whole situation.

The actor playing Andrey enters from behind the audience, shouting. He is upset that his sisters don’t like his wife.

The actor playing Fyodor enters playing the accordian.

The soldiers line up and the noise of their marching is heard.

A loud rumbling sound effect is heard.

An actor enters playing the guitar from behind the audience.

The actors playing Masha and Vershinin have to say goodbye to each other. Masha is deeply upset.

The stage goes to a red light.

Military music plays.

A gun shot is heard. The Baron Is announced as dead. The actors playing Olga and Irina are upset.

The actor playing Olga makes a speech, the lights go to blackout.

The End of the Show.