School of Theater gives OU Glowacki's 'Fourth Sister'
By Susannah Elliott, Entertainment Editor
February 14, 2006 | 12:30 p.m.
The stage features a single table with mismatched old chairs, a wooden wardrobe and a metal-framed double bed draped with a dull quilt. Beside the lone door in the corner sit several pairs of slippers. Surrounding the furniture is a half-circle wall of cardboard boxes that seem to be holding hundreds of electronics.
This set serves as the scenery for nine locations in “The Fourth Sister,” but the rush from scene to scene might make one forget.
The story seamlessly blends one scene into another. At the end of one scene, the two sisters remain seated at the table in their apartment, while another sister visits a park with her lover. The audience is able to view both scenes clearly. Although a time lapse has occurred, the characters in both scenes are able to talk to one another from their separate locations.
By breaking this theatrical wall, Glowacki risked confusing audiences, but lighting designer Michael Lincoln managed to create distinct differences among scenes on the OU stage.
Those scenes cover roughly six months of the story of the three Russian sisters. In “The Fourth Sister,” Glowacki has created an obvious allusion to Anton Chekhov’s “The Three Sisters,” which was performed at OU during the 2004-2005 season. While Chekhov’s play featured three sisters desperately hoping for a way to return to Moscow at the end of the 19th century, Glowacki’s three sisters are already there. Wiera, Katia and Tania seem unable to find ways to satisfy themselves in the broken world Moscow has become in the late 1990s.
The people of Moscow seem to be trapped in the middle of a confusing social transition. Still struggling to adjust to the lack of communism, they are a city ruled by gangsters, where educated people can’t find decent jobs. The General, the father of Glowacki’s three sisters, has fought in the 20th century wars and, in an effort to keep a façade of order and familiarity, makes his daughters change the bed sheets daily.
“The world holds itself together as long as somewhere, there’s a tiny bit of order,” he said.
Meanwhile, the General’s daughters keep themselves separated from a bleak reality by clinging to their own delusions. Wiera, the oldest, works for her married lover, a politician who is overwhelmed with joy at the news of her pregnancy only because it proved he wasn’t sterile. The General has been spending all his retirement on dance lessons for Tania, the youngest, on whom most of the first act is centered.
Tania speaks in a teenage girl’s characteristic stream-of-consciousness and becomes especially talkative when she holds conversations with her dead mother or babbles to Kostia, the young gangster with whom she has become infatuated. Katia, the middle sister, has a law degree but works in a circus, where she steals meat from the animals. It isn’t until she meets John Freeman, an American documentarist, that the real story begins.
Professor William Fisher’s skillful directing is especially evident in the banter between the sisters and in the type of humor characteristic of dark comedies. The sisters’ conversations flow naturally, as sisters would normally speak to each other, and the delivery of Glowacki’s jokes possesses the right amount of subtlety for audiences to understand them and respond. Fisher keeps the scenes moving at a comfortable pace when it could easily become confusing.
Notable performances are those of the sisters and of Stiopa and Misza. Alumna Beth Brown and junior Aline Elasmar (Wiera and Katia, respectively) seem to possess a deep understanding of their characters and their development.
Senior Laura Montes (Tania) brings outstanding energy and enthusiasm to the stage while commanding a somber atmosphere in a pivotal scene. The girls convince an orphan boy named Stiopa to pose as a prostitute, thus creating the “fourth sister.” Stiopa’s character could easily become one-dimensional, but grad student Ryan Crowder helps reveal Stiopa as a multi-layered character, containing both vulnerability and self-determination.
Senior Andy Lutz shines as Misza, the gangster who must apologize for shooting the wrong guy. Lutz is a constant source of comedy and charisma.
“The Fourth Sister” might not be the story for everyone, but it is an example of OU’s theater department at its best. Students and members of the community should take advantage of the chance to see a play that has yet to age.
To purchase tickets for performances from Feb. 15-18, call the College of Fine Arts Box Office in the lobby of Kantner Hall at (740) 593-4800. Performances begin at 8 p.m. in the Elizabeth Evans Baker Theater in Kantner Hall.
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