‘Do you ever wonder what would happen if we could live our lives all over again but be fully conscious of it the second time?

I bet we’d try to do everything differently, or at least would know to create a different world for ourselves.’

In a room in a house in a provincial town, three sisters wait for their lives to begin. Olga, the eldest. Masha, the middle child. Irina, the youngest.

The clock strikes. A candle is lit. The clock stops. Something catches fire. The clock strikes. They wake up.

Cordelia Lynn's version of Chekhov's Three Sisters, from a literal translation by Helen Rappaport, was first performed at the Almeida Theatre, London, in April 2019, in a production directed by Rebecca Frecknall.

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'Deftly captures the sense of longing for a new life... brilliantly captures the sense of boredom and discontent felt by the three sisters and others who orbit their home'

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'Cordelia Lynn's adaptation makes Chekhov's characters feel like contemporary young women, vibrating with frustration at being stuck in unsatisfying jobs and lumbered with unsatisfying men... her update also delivers moments of capsizing sadness... quietly devastating'