Reza de Wet plays have drawn on Russian author Anton Chekhov as inspiration. DRIE SUSTERS TWEE (THREE SISTERS TWO) have the characters of Chekhov's THREE SISTERS moving to the structure and rhythm of THE CHERRY ORCHARD. The shadowy undertow of UNCLE VANYA, so carefully concealed behind Chekhov's lively dialogues, became the expressionistic spirit in the award winning YELENA. This year, opening at the National Arts festival, de Wet's ON THE LAKE borrowed from THE SEAGULL, recalling the life of the actress Nina, who longs for freedom; Madame Arkadina, losing the battle against the passing of youth; and Polina, whose life consists of dashed
The Three Weird Sisters Gertrude (Price), Maude (Clare) and Isobel (Merrall) live in a decaying and claustrophobic mansion in a Welsh mining village. Gertrude is blind, Maude is almost deaf and Isobel is crippled by arthritis. The coalmine out of which the family made their fortune is almost worked out, and its tunnels and shafts are dangerously unstable. When a section of the underground workings collapses, destroying a row of local cottages and unsettling the foundations of the mansion, the sisters feel honour-bound to finance repairs, but do not have the means to do so. The sisters' younger half-brother Owen (Lovell), who left the