A paleontologist game
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Creation of the 2020-2021 season at the Théâtre des Ateliers, Three sisters, according to The Three Sisters by Anton Tchekhov, offers an invigorating and subtle reinterpretation of the work of the Russian playwright. ” We have indulged in the game of paleontologists who seek to reconstruct an entire being from an imprint “, Explain Alain simon who adapts and stages the text (reworked from its word-for-word translation), stripped of all the lines that are not attributed to the three sisters, Olga, Irina and Macha, respectively interpreted with a striking finesse by Noelie Giraud, Elyssa Leydet, Brunel and Bénédicte Menissier. Confined in a small provincial town where a regiment has just arrived, the three Prozorov sisters and their brother Andrei share the family home. The story begins with the birthday of the youngest, Irina, the date coinciding with that of their father’s death. The boredom of country life is punctuated by the officers’ visits, their idle and sometimes absurd conversations. The dream of a return to Moscow, where young women spent their childhood, returns, a leitmotif whose echoes wither away with the end of hopes, the promise of a brilliant and happy life is mired: the brother, a pampered artist, destined for a successful career as a university professor, marries a small and vulgar woman, Andrei devotes himself to games, mortgages property, annihilating any initial project. Boredom, the fatigue of an unsatisfying life, gradually eat away at enthusiasms. Olga (twenty-eight years old at the beginning of the play), a teacher in a high school of which she will end up being the director without having really wanted to, runs out, replaces the mother of the Prozorovs, and has abandoned her own desires to devote herself to his sisters. Macha, pianist, is married to a being older than herself and falls in love with the sparkling Lieutenant-Colonel Verchinine, amorous hopes that end with the departure of the garrison. Olga, the youngest (twenty years old at the start of the play), is full of enthusiasm and joie de vivre, the fresh voice of her performer vivaciously serves her impulses, her desire to work, to give meaning to her existence. . Never discouraged, she invests herself with passion in her various tasks, agrees to marry at the end of the play Baron von Touzenbach, in love with him for five years. Frank, she confesses to him her esteem and her lack of love by accepting the marriage proposal. The little, the boredom, become matter. The developments of the three young women on the set encompass three universes, three analyzes, three looks, and it is this prism that redraws the world, arouses executives and people, populates the invisible with tangible presences. A whole universe is carved in hollow, the evocation of their imprints materializes the ghosts, gives them a corpulence, tics, expressions, outbursts, evasions, ridiculous or wise words. The movement creates, paints emotions, feelings, makes the slightest nuances perceptible, paints an animated fresco from which emerges a host of colorful characters and a whole dense and lively society. A whole world is offered to us, filtered by the perception of the protagonists. This exploration, superbly served by the lights of Symeon Fieulaine, demonstrates, if needed, the power of theatrical art when worn with brilliance and intelligence.
MARYVONNE COLOMBANI
Mars 2021
Three sisters was given at the Théâtre des Ateliers, Aix-en-Provence on March 9 in front of an audience of professionals
Photography © theater des Ateliers, Aix-en-Provence
