REVIEW: FOUR SISTERS by Molly Spain (and Anton Chekov) at Baron’s Court Theatre 7 - 11 October 2025
‘high on visuals, music and movement, if a bit low on narrative coherence’ ★★
As a playwright myself, I appreciate the value of having a bigger name on the box office bill – being on the same programme once as Rona Munro and even better (sorry, Rona) a double bill with Brian Friel (no mean Chekov interpreter) are among the personal high points. But I’ve never had the chutzpah Molly Spain has in co-opting Anton Chekov as an on-the-bill co-writer for her Masha-up of one of his most famous and performed plays (the fourth sister is Natasha, a sister-in-law in Anton’s early 20th century world).
Chekov has left the world plenty of lasting messages but is in no position to say what he’d have thought of what she’s done with his work in a 40-minute version high on visuals, music and movement, if a bit low on narrative or psychological coherence. One hopes he’d have liked much of it though, or at least liked the ambition, the playfulness and the new prism for themes including existential alienation, the repetitive tedium of quotidian life, remembrance (not always reliable) of things past, and a yearning to be elsewhere – in this case ‘home’ rather than Chekov’s more specific Moscow.
Spain herself, a black-clad, stern Masha, is discovered as the audience enters, playing repeated tunes on a keyboard. Her sisters Olga and Irina, played by Helen Baird and Sarah Sinizer-Hopkins, are clad in white and red and preparing a birthday tea and chalking illustrations on an inventively decorated black backing wall. Natasha (Nikki Webber) completes the foursome in green dress, not the scheming sister-in-law of the original superseding them out of their home but a sister in solidarity.
The visuals are striking, the attention to detail, particularly in the differentiation of the costume and the tiny tea cups and fairy cakes that suggest almost Alice in Wonderland rather than a remote provincial Russian town. The dialogue’s been stripped to a mixture of fourth-wall breaker (‘The play is beginning’) to repetitive rhythm (“It’s my birthday”, “I have a headache” etc) and a series of non-sequiturs that draw attention again to what we’re seeing more than what we hear. Chekov may not entirely earn his co-credit for any of the words.
There’s theatricality here, and talent too – the four performers interweave brilliantly as an ensemble and the pace of the speeches, the pick-up of the cues is great. What there isn’t is much coherence in the story-telling or in the relationships between the four (nothing in the text beyond the title even tells us they are related at all) or the dream/nightmare location in which they perform their rituals, do their dance, play their games. The characters don’t much develop beyond their clear visual distinction, with no discernible conflict or drama as a result.
The piece never flags, the energy is high and almost frenetic at times, but neither does it ever reach a point, and none of the wider world of the original play is represented. Chekov’s Three Sisters contains at least two fully realised characters we never see; this version has nothing outside its four walls, and people within them differentiated largely by wearing different vibrant colours.
Not quite a drama, then, and, fun as it is, not sufficient weight to linger 120-odd years in the memory. But here’s a company to watch, and a curio of some visual invention and beauty. Be good to see what Molly does next. Meanwhile, I’m off to ask Moliere if he’ll help with my Misanthrope.
FOUR SISTERS by Molly Spain (and Anton Chekov)
Directed by Everleigh Brenner
Baron’s Court Theatre, 7 - 11 October 2025
Box Office: https://www.baronscourttheatre.com/foursisters
Director: Everleigh Brenner & Molly Spain
Cast:
Olga: Helen Baird
Masha: Molly Spain
Irina: Sarah Sinizer-Hopkins
Natasha: Nikki Weber
Producer: Little Foxes Theatre Company
Reviewer David Weir’s plays include Confessional (Oran Mor, Glasgow) and Better Together (Jack Studio, Brockley, London).
