Geography in Three Sisters
'Moscow! Moscow! Moscow!'
"For a long time in the Russian town of Perm stood a house known as “The House of Three Sisters.” Perm is an 800-mile journey from Moscow en route to Siberia. In the late 19th century, Perm emerged as an industrial center with an economy centered around metallurgy and salt mining, and was a gateway or stopover for anyone heading north. Ever since Chekhov, in a letter to Maxim Gorky describing his 1900 play, suggested that Three Sisters “takes place in a provincial town such as Perm,” the town has embraced the Prozorov sisters as honorary Permians. Chekhov might have been amused by the town’s enthusiasm for his characters. After all, the Prozorov sisters—Olga, Irina and Masha—want nothing to do with the provincial town where, at the play’s beginning, they have been living for 11 years.
In the country, longing for the city, the Prozorovs can only picture the idyllic Moscow of their youth. At the dawn of the 20th century, Moscow was for many an unhappy place to live. The overpopulation in the country led to a mass migration of peasants into the city, first as migrant workers and then as permanent residents. Living conditions for workers during the 1890s, during Moscow’s most rapid period of industrialization, led to a proliferation of crowded and dirty slums. Though at first the slums existed primarily outside of the city, they quickly expanded. The burst of industrialization and enterprise also led to an influx of foreign investment and business, as well as more international residents. In comparison to western European industrialization standards, Russia remained behind. Still, in the 11 years of the sisters’ absence, much of Moscow had quickly become a changed city, one the Prozorovs might have struggled to recognize." (Steinberg)
Source: Steinberg, Rachel. Intelligentsia in Exile: The Prozerovs and the Moscow Dream. Berkeley Repertory Theatre. April 3, 2013. http://www.berkeleyrep.org/season/1011/ts_program.asp#four
"For a long time in the Russian town of Perm stood a house known as “The House of Three Sisters.” Perm is an 800-mile journey from Moscow en route to Siberia. In the late 19th century, Perm emerged as an industrial center with an economy centered around metallurgy and salt mining, and was a gateway or stopover for anyone heading north. Ever since Chekhov, in a letter to Maxim Gorky describing his 1900 play, suggested that Three Sisters “takes place in a provincial town such as Perm,” the town has embraced the Prozorov sisters as honorary Permians. Chekhov might have been amused by the town’s enthusiasm for his characters. After all, the Prozorov sisters—Olga, Irina and Masha—want nothing to do with the provincial town where, at the play’s beginning, they have been living for 11 years.
In the country, longing for the city, the Prozorovs can only picture the idyllic Moscow of their youth. At the dawn of the 20th century, Moscow was for many an unhappy place to live. The overpopulation in the country led to a mass migration of peasants into the city, first as migrant workers and then as permanent residents. Living conditions for workers during the 1890s, during Moscow’s most rapid period of industrialization, led to a proliferation of crowded and dirty slums. Though at first the slums existed primarily outside of the city, they quickly expanded. The burst of industrialization and enterprise also led to an influx of foreign investment and business, as well as more international residents. In comparison to western European industrialization standards, Russia remained behind. Still, in the 11 years of the sisters’ absence, much of Moscow had quickly become a changed city, one the Prozorovs might have struggled to recognize." (Steinberg)
Source: Steinberg, Rachel. Intelligentsia in Exile: The Prozerovs and the Moscow Dream. Berkeley Repertory Theatre. April 3, 2013. http://www.berkeleyrep.org/season/1011/ts_program.asp#four