The Phoenix Theatre Ensemble's "The Three Sisters" is a beautiful realization of Chekhov's tragedy of wasted lives and untried dreams.  Established at Plymouth Church in Shaker Heights, this inaugural production displays the same attention to detail and nuance and the coherent, cohesive direction that always marks director Thomas Fulton's work.

The production is consistently fine, certainly not faultless, but far better than the pedestrian fare that's been offered overall this season by Cleveland's leading theatres, with the only other steady relief coming from a strong Dobama schedule.

Chekhov's heroines are three young women who haven't the strength to arrange their own destinies but are buffeted about by fate and look forward to a time, always not so very long away, when they will escape the vulgar, insipid town where they reside and return to Moscow, which for them means life.

Until then, they merely exist, dominated by forces first outside then in their own home.  Eldest Olga is a teacher, staid and responsible.  She is marked for post of headmistress, though she doesn't wish it, knowing it will mean an end to the dream of leaving.  She does allow it to be given her, in the end, passivity winning again.  She should have married Kulygin, a kindly but dull teacher, but instead her sister Masha did, a volatile personality imprisoned by her sheeplike husband's affection.

She takes solace in a desperate affair with an urbane, compassionate officer stationed near the town.  Irina, the youngest, buries her unhappiness in work and gives up her dream of love, loved but unloving and incapable of dealing with a spurned lover or her affianced husband.

Their scholarly brother brings the town into their home with his marriage to the common Natasha, less of a catalyst than in other productions.  She slowly takes control, insinuating herself into the fabric of the house while eliminating traces of the women.  Her implicit control is felt as the setting of the drama moves from the living room, to the chamber Irina has been maneuvered into sharing with Olga then finally out into the garden, as Natasha cleanses the house of its owners completely.

Jan Jacobs and Theresa Westbrook in
The Three Sisters

The role of Natasha is indicative of Fulton's exciting and completely individual interpretation of the characters and their interrelations.  For once, she is not the archetypal cold-minded villainess, but merely a small-mineded, spiteful, petty woman, pursuing her own ends as best she knows how.

And, in this "The Three Sisters" the actors not only interact, they are interrelated.  That alone is a revelation for a Cleveland stage. While the drama ispresented in period (turn of the century), the view is contemporary, slightly jarring at first but unarguably displaying the universal quality of Chekhov's work and using the actors' abilities to best possible advantage.

Fulton's direction emphasizes the "ensemble" in the company's name.  There are a collection of memorable moments, and all fit smoothly into the pattern of the drama.

Carol Weiss gives a splended, sustained performance as Masha, but Andthony Walsh as the humane family friend, Ralph GUnderman as Masha's lover Vershinin, Janis Jacobs and Theresa Westbrook as olg and Irina and Ken Armour as the vulnerable, tender young man who loves Irina are all affecting.

Chekhov's tremendus understanding of and empathy for the human condition is reflected in the Phoenix "Three Sisters".  It is satisfying, provoking theatre.