First performed at the Moscow Art Theatre in 1901, The Three Sisters
probes the lives and dreams of Olga, Masha, and Irina, former Muscovites
now living in a provincial town from which they long to escape. Their
hopes for a life more suited to their cultivated tastes and
sensibilities provide a touching counterpoint to the relentless flow of
compromising events in the real world.
In this powerful play, a landmark of modern drama, Chekhov masterfully
interweaves character and theme in subtle ways that make the work's
climax seem as inevitable as it is deeply moving. It is reprinted here
from a standard text with updated transliteration of character names and
additional explanatory footnotes.