Mamaí mines ‘Three Sisters’ for meaning and finds the mother lode

Bob Abelman

Cleveland Jewish News, The News Herald, The Morning Journal

Member, International Association of Theatre Critics

Master adapter Aaron Posner, who  modernized Chaim Potok’s “The Chosen” to create “My Name is Asher Lev,” recently wrote and staged irreverent versions of Anton Chekhov’s “The Seagull” (re-titled “Stupid F—ing Bird”) and “Uncle Vanya”  (re-titled “Life Sucks”). 

Set in modern times rather than the late-19^th century, Posner’s take-offs on Chekhov are pumped with adrenaline, contemporary references, and plenty of profanity.  “What he was doing then [the elliptical exchanges between characters, the paradoxical presentation of tragedy and satire, the excessive realism] was radical and revolutionary and exciting,” Poster noted in an American Theatre interview.  “Doing Chekhov a hundred years later is the opposite of that.”

Mamaí Theatre has chosen to go old school in its current production of Chekhov’s “Three Sisters.” 

And while this staging is neither radical nor revolutionary, it is most certainly exciting, for director Bernadette Clemens finds all the inescapably dark and often very funny moments in this four-act, three-hour masterwork.  And her remarkable 17-person ensemble string those moments together to give this production its immense vibrancy.

For more of this review, go to:  http://www.clevelandjewishnews.com/columnists/