num_pages: 128
description: Chekhov's penultimate play has inspired a bewildering variety of interpretations - both in criticism and in performance - since its premiere at the Moscow Arts Theatre in 1901. Tri sestry has been viewed both as tragedy and comedy, as a testimony for the eternal yearnings for love, happiness and meaning, and as a devastating indictment of the folly of inert gentility. Its characters have been seen as worthy embodiments of the universal 'human condition', or as passive products of pre-revolutionary Russian privilege. Either way, the sisters are poignant reminders of human disappointment, frustration, loneliness and the passage of time. The play remains a firm favourite with audiences, both in Russia and in the English-speaking world, and must be considered a fundamental work of twentieth-century European drama.
language: Russian
title: Три сестры
titlecomplete: Три сестры
genres: Classics, Drama, Theatre, Plays, Russia, Russian Literature, School, 20th Century, Literature, Fiction
ratings_count: 21381
places: Ukraine
publisher: Bristol Classical Press