SOURCE: “The Three Sisters,” in Chekhov: A Study of the Four Major Plays, Yale University Press, 1983, pp. 75-116.

In the following essay, Peace discusses the creative genesis of The Three Sisters.

Chekhov began work on The Three Sisters in August 1900. It was the first play he wrote specifically for the Moscow Arts Theatre after their earlier successes with The Seagull and Uncle Vanya. The play received its premiere on 27 January 1901, with Olga Knipper, soon to be Chekhov's wife, playing the role of Masha. The Three Sisters is described as a ‘drama in four acts’.

In Act I of Uncle Vanya Chekhov exploits the banal pattern of tea-drinking both to introduce his characters and to suggest a psychological dimension to a domestic situation. The central event in the first act of The Three Sisters is the name-day celebration of Irina, and we shall see later that the ritual of...