ABSTRACT
. . .Stravinsky is recorded as having said that he did not want his music interpreted, he wanted it played; and could Chekhov have seen the present production of the ‘Three Sisters’ at the Fortune Theatre he might have said the same about his plays. It is a personal production, and one with a bias. The bias is towards an exaggeration of the individual sufferings of the characters - they are not treated always as having no hand in the thwarting of their desires, and there is nothing in the play itself to show that Chekhov thought they had. Actors and audience, with a long tradition of heroes, heroines, and villains behind them, must always find it hard to adjust themselves to that balance of segments in a complete circle which the characters in a Chekhov play may be said to represent. There are no chief characters, with minor ones filling in the gaps - each hoes his or her own row of experience, and it is the interweaving of these experiences which needs to be given rein, unstressed by the clash of the characters’ personalities. . . .
