‘Three Sisters’ a stunning show at WestConn

David Begelman

“Bravo!” Is the word that springs to mind after seeing the new production of Anton Chekhov’s “Three Sisters” by WestConn’s School of Visual & Performing Arts.

 There are a number of reasons for the resounding success of the show: a happy combination of performing talent, skilled direction by Professor Sal Trapani, and the impressive contributions of the backstage crew. These include an accomplished Set Design by Elizabeth Popiel, a well crafted blend of modern and period costumes by Jessica Camarero, Sound Design by Joshua Leslie, and what can only be described as a professional touch by Melanie Leff in Lighting Design.

The success of the production is all the more noteworthy when one considers how difficult a play Chekhov’s masterpiece actually is to stage. Routinely, even professional productions fail to take the measure of “Three Sisters” by overdoing the darker side of its characters.

The men and women in the play may all be people whose actions reveal a disaffected upper social class. But Chekhov himself insisted that there was a comedic side to their depressive posturing. The WestConn production succeeds in capturing this aspect of the drama, a facet of it even Stanislavsky at the Moscow Art Theater ignored—much to Chekhov’s professed dismay.

In the current production, director Trapani and his crew have innovated the setting for “Three Sisters.” The audience is seated on stage right and left with only a scrim separating it from the larger theater. The action takes place on a beautifully appointed center stage, so that performers move about close to the audience seating and enter and exit from four points around it.

The effect is to create an immediacy of the ongoing action, rather than the distancing from it seen in productions in which performers and audience are separated by a proscenium.

Olga (Amy Bentley), Masha (Samantha Tuozzolo), and Irina (Aline O’Connor) are the eponymous heroines of a drama in which everyone seems to be longing for what they don’t have or can’t achieve. The play’s metaphor for the unattainable is relocation to Moscow, a dream all the more appealing in it’s being forever in the realm of fantasy.

Irina can’t love the man she marries, Tuzenbach (Anthony John Mendoza), because she has a thing for Solyoni (Joel Oramos). Masha is stuck on Vershinin (Ryan Naso in the role Stanislavsky performed at the Moscow Art Theater). Olga (Amy Bentley) is the older sister who tries to give solace to her two siblings. Andrey (John Stegmaier) is a long-suffering brother who bewails his lack of accomplishment to the regular accompaniment of Second Act coughing jags.

Several leading roles (Olga, Masha, Irina, Andrey, Anfisa) are switched on alternate dates of performance. Actors are predominantly performance majors at WestConn, and to a person acquit themselves admirably in their roles.

Audiences who attend the performance will be struck by the atmospheric quality of this well-staged production and its talented cast. It succeeds in delineating what may be a quite rare achievement—the hint of subtexts that are not only subtly nuanced, but are also uniquely Chekhovian.

“Three Sisters” runs until March 12 at Western Connecticut State University’s Berkshire Theatre, BerkshireHall, Midtown Campus, 181 White Street, Danbury. Performances are Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m., March 6 at 3 p.m. and March 12 at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. Tickets are $20 adults, $15 seniors and students. Tickets may be purchased by calling the box office at 203-837-8499 or online at www.wcsu.edu/tickets.