Three Sisters
By Anton Chekhov.
Translated by Julius West.
Imprint
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Dramatis Personae
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Andrey Sergeyevitch Prosorov
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Natalia Ivanova (Natasha), his fiancée, later his wife (28)
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Olga (28),
Masha (23),
Irina (20), his sisters -
Feodor Ilitch Kuligin, high school teacher, married to Masha
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Alexander Ignateyevitch Vershinin, lieutenant-colonel in charge of a battery (42)
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Nicolai Lvovitch Tuzenbach, baron, lieutenant in the army (30)
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Vassili Vassilevitch Soleni, captain
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Ivan Romanovitch Chebutikin, army doctor (60)
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Alexey Petrovitch Fedotik, sublieutenant
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Vladimir Carlovitch Rode, sublieutenant
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Ferapont, doorkeeper at local council offices, an old man
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Anfisa, nurse (80)
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.
| Olga, in the regulation blue dress of a teacher at a girl’s high school, is walking about correcting exercise books; Masha, in a black dress, with a hat on her knees, sits and reads a book; Irina, in white, stands about, with a thoughtful expression. | |
| Olga | It’s just a year since father died last May the fifth, on your name day, Irina. It was very cold then, and snowing. I thought I would never survive it, and you were in a dead faint. And now a year has gone by and we are already thinking about it without pain, and you are wearing a white dress and your face is happy. Clock strikes twelve. And the clock struck just the same way then. Pause. I remember that there was music at the funeral, and they fired a volley in the cemetery. He was a general in command of a brigade but there were few people present. Of course, it was raining then, raining hard, and snowing. |
| Irina | Why think about it! |
| Baron Tuzenbach, Chebutikin and Soleni appear by the table in the dining-room, behind the pillars. | |
| Olga | It’s so warm today that we can keep the windows open, though the birches are not yet in flower. Father was put in command of a brigade, and he rode out of Moscow with us eleven years ago. I remember perfectly that it was early in May and that everything in Moscow was flowering then. It was warm too, everything was bathed in sunshine. Eleven years have gone, and I remember everything as if we rode out only yesterday. Oh, God! When I awoke this morning and saw all the light and the spring, joy entered my heart, and I longed passionately to go home. |
| Chebutikin | Will you take a bet on it? |
| Tuzenbach | Oh, nonsense. |
| Masha, lost in a reverie over her book, whistles softly. | |
| Olga | Don’t whistle, Masha. How can you! Pause. I’m always having headaches from having to go to the high school every day and then teach till evening. Strange thoughts come to me, as if I were already an old woman. And really, during these four years that I have been working here, I have been feeling as if every day my strength and youth have been squeezed out of me, drop by drop. And only one desire grows and gains in strength … |
| Irina | To go away to Moscow. To sell the house, drop everything here, and go to Moscow … |
| Olga | Yes! To Moscow, and as soon as possible. |
| Chebutikin and Tuzenbach laugh. | |
| Irina | I expect Andrey will become a professor, but still, he won’t want to live here. Only poor Masha must go on living here. |
| Olga | Masha can come to Moscow every year, for the whole summer. |
| Masha is whistling gently. | |
| Irina | Everything will be arranged, please God. Looks out of the window. It’s nice out today. I don’t know why I’m so happy: I remembered this morning that it was my name day, and I suddenly felt glad and remembered my childhood, when mother was still with us. What beautiful thoughts I had, what thoughts! |
| Olga | You’re all radiance today, I’ve never seen you look so lovely. And Masha is pretty, too. Andrey wouldn’t be bad-looking, if he wasn’t so stout; it does spoil his appearance. But I’ve grown old and very thin, I suppose it’s because I get angry with the girls at school. Today I’m free. I’m at home. I haven’t got a headache, and I feel younger than I was yesterday. I’m only twenty-eight. … All’s well, God is everywhere, but it seems to me that if only I were married and could stay at home all day, it would be even better. Pause. I should love my husband. |
| Tuzenbach | To Soleni. I’m tired of listening to the rot you talk. Entering the sitting-room. I forgot to say that Vershinin, our new lieutenant-colonel of artillery, is coming to see us today. Sits down to the piano. |
| Olga | That’s good. I’m glad. |
| Irina | Is he old? |
