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Dramatis Personae

The action takes place in a provincial town.

(Ages are stated in parentheses.)

Three Sisters

Act I

In Prosorov’s house. A sitting-room with pillars; behind is seen a large dining-room. It is midday, the sun is shining brightly outside. In the dining-room the table is being laid for lunch.

“There stands a green oak by the sea.
And a chain of bright gold is around it …
And a chain of bright gold is around it. …”

Gets up and sings softly.

“There stands a green oak by the sea,
And a chain of bright gold is around it …
And a chain of bright gold is around it …”

Tearfully. What am I saying that for? I’ve had those words running in my head all day. …

Act II

Scene as before. It is 8 p.m. Somebody is heard playing a concertina outside in the street. There is no fire.

Embraces Andrey.

“Oh my house, my house, my new-built house.”

Dances.

“Its walls are like a sieve!”

Laughter.

Act III

The room shared by Olga and Irina. Beds, screened off, on the right and left. It is past 2 a.m. Behind the stage a fire-alarm is ringing; it has apparently been going for some time. Nobody in the house has gone to bed yet.

Yes. Laughs. How strange everything really is! Pause. When the fire broke out, I hurried off home; when I get there I see the house is whole, uninjured, and in no danger, but my two girls are standing by the door in just their underclothes, their mother isn’t there, the crowd is excited, horses and dogs are running about, and the girls’ faces are so agitated, terrified, beseeching, and I don’t know what else. My heart was pained when I saw those faces. My God, I thought, what these girls will have to put up with if they live long! I caught them up and ran, and still kept on thinking the one thing: what they will have to live through in this world! Fire-alarm; a pause. I come here and find their mother shouting and angry. Masha enters with a pillow and sits on the sofa. And when my girls were standing by the door in just their underclothes, and the street was red from the fire, there was a dreadful noise, and I thought that something of the sort used to happen many years ago when an enemy made a sudden attack, and looted, and burned. … And at the same time what a difference there really is between the present and the past! And when a little more time has gone by, in two or three hundred years perhaps, people will look at our present life with just the same fear, and the same contempt, and the whole past will seem clumsy and dull, and very uncomfortable, and strange. Oh, indeed, what a life there will be, what a life! Laughs. Forgive me, I’ve dropped into philosophy again. Please let me continue. I do awfully want to philosophize, it’s just how I feel at present. Pause. As if they are all asleep. As I was saying: what a life there will be! Only just imagine. … There are only three persons like yourselves in the town just now, but in future generations there will be more and more, and still more, and the time will come when everything will change and become as you would have it, people will live as you do, and then you too will go out of date; people will be born who are better than you. … Laughs. Yes, today I am quite exceptionally in the vein. I am devilishly keen on living. … Sings.

“The power of love all ages know,
From its assaults great good does grow.”

Laughs.

Act IV

The old garden at the house of the Prosorovs. There is a long avenue of firs, at the end of which the river can be seen. There is a forest on the far side of the river. On the right is the terrace of the house: bottles and tumblers are on a table here; it is evident that champagne has just been drunk. It is midday. Every now and again passersby walk across the garden, from the road to the river; five soldiers go past rapidly.

The old man is unnecessarily excited. I won’t go far, I’ll only just bring him down like a snipe. Takes out his scent-bottle and scents his hands. I’ve poured out a whole bottle of scent today and they still smell … of a dead body. Pause. Yes. … You remember the poem