'Three Sisters: Final Cut': Theater Review

Let's begin with a caveat: A recent performance of Three Sisters: Final Cut coincided with the opening game of the World Series, leaving only three die-hard theatergoers in attendance. It's possible that the production suffered from a near-total absence of energy from the audience — but not likely. It's hard to imagine any audience, however energetic, making this show any less horrible. Adapted and directed by Oleg Liptsin, the production begins with Act 1 from Chekhov's original, then jumps directly to Act 4. Well, not directly: during intermission, we're treated to a 30-minute video that purports to relate the major events from Acts 2 and 3, but mostly just exploits the victims of the San Bruno gas explosion. Among the show's failings: The script doesn't sound like an adaptation so much as an amateurish improvisation. There's no clear sense of time and place — the setting appears to be Russia circa 1900, except with music from Toy Story and a reference to the iPhone 4. The pacing is erratic at best and glacial at worst. The story will make zero sense if you don't know the original, and hardly makes any sense if you do. It's a tiresome, pretentious, dramatically inert disaster. Avoid.