Last Thursday I had the pleasure of attending the newest production of the School of Drama; Three Sisters, by Anton Chekhov, with direction by Vladimir Mirodan. The play started its run on the 4^th of October and went on until the 13^th at the Purnell Center. The play looks at the lives of the titular three sisters and youngest brother of the formerly aristocratic Prozorov family, over the span of a few years. Relegated to living in an isolated rural Russian town, they are engrossed with the idea of moving back to the sophistication and culture of their native Moscow. The family's mundane existence is helped in part by visits from the officers of the local military garrison, with quite a few captivated by the sisters. Seized with the inability to act on their desire for Moscow, each of the play's four acts focuses on key moments of the sisters' lives, and presents snapshots of their increasingly frustrated, hopeless, and tragic states.

The production is directed by Vladimir Mirodan, Director of Drama Centre London, which is only one of many other distinguished positions and accolades he has accumulated in the United Kingdom.

Sets and costumes were top-notch, as to be expected by a School of Drama production. Both halves of the play ran for an hour and fifteen minutes, with a fifteen minute intermission. While the beginning was a bit slow, it only took minutes before I was fully engaged with the lives of the characters, who, despite the setting of late 19th-century Russia, had very relatable and modern problems – the inability to act, social isolation, and the timeless pitfalls of love. The end of Act II was particularly disorienting, even disturbing, and the constant presence of unhappiness and restlessness made the entire play incredibly compelling. The acting was wonderful and vibrant, with incredibly diverse portrayals among the cast.

My only complaint was the lack of students at the showing. Although it might be due to when I saw the play, the sizable audience was mainly composed of the citizens of Pittsburgh, with only a small minority of Carnegie Mellon students. From my experience of being on campus, I'm astonished at the number of students who don't take the opportunity to view the performances of one of the premier drama schools in the country. I highly recommend seeing the run of shows that will be performed in Purnell for the coming year, and I am confident that many will enjoy them.

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