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THE THREE SISTERS….Acting Style and Then Some… The original Moscow Art Theatre’s presentation of The Three Sisters may not have won critical praise or even mass spectator appeal, but Stanislavsky’s production of the Chekhovian play in 1901 has since changed the way actors live through their characters. Chekhov despised the idea of anything false onstage. “The immense majority of people are nervous, you know: the greater number suffer, and a small proportion feel acute pain; but where- in streets and in houses- do you see people tearing about, leaping up and clutching at their heads? Suffering ought to be expressed as it is expressed in life- that is, not by the arms and legs, but by the tone and expression; not by gesticulation, but by grace. Subtle emotions of the soul in educated people must be subtly expressed in an external way. You will say - stage conditions. No conditions allow falsity.” -(Chekhov, 197) He believed in showing the details and subtleties of one’s character and his writing reflected this.
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