english
THREE SISTERS WATCHING CHEKHOV
performance
The Ister Theatre, Belgrade, Serbia

Conceptualised, directed and choreographed by: Čarni Đerić
Adaptation and dramaturgical advice: Bojan Đorđev
Composer: Nenad Jelić
Set: Ljubomir Todorović
Costumes: The Easter Theatre
Lights design: Paun Pavlović
Co-producer: The Little Theatre ‘Duško Radović’

Cast:
Srđan Ivanović, Dušan Murić, Miloš Timotijević, Petar Ćirica and Jelena Jović

The voices of three sisters (off):
Maja Mirković, Marta Popivoda and Ana Vujanović

The realisation of the play made possible by:
Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Serbia
Assembly of the City of Belgrade – Secretariat for Culture 
Station – Service for Contemporary Dance

The show lasts 55 minutes.

The play Three Sisters - Watching Chekhov is the second part of the Three Sisters – All around Chekhov from 2007.
By erasing the texts of the three sisters from the play, this staging of Chekhov places the audience into the position of Olga, Masha and Irina. Although this directing procedure can appear radical at first sight, it only takes further and develops one of the main features of the Chekhov’s dramatic language – where his dramatis personae, especially the leading ones ‘can hardly get to say anything’, they ‘suffer’ and ‘do not act’. His problems, dilemmas and reflections are deeply set into the talkative everyday life which in its banality annuls each and any big word, in which there is no room for a (dramatic) hero. The production kind of plays with the audience since its members are active participants in the performance - placed in the position of the sisters who are not on the stage. The audience is active and it watches the play from different spatial positions depending on which act is currently unfolding – from the stairs; seated on the chairs at the tables set in the shape of a square, so that the stage is actually placed in the empty space in the middle, but also around the audience; and finally the actors and actresses in the last act move the set away (the chairs and tables), forcing the audience to move around the place.  
The Ister Theatre is one of the founders and a member of ANET (Association of Independent Theatres) and a member of the STATION Service for Contemporary Dance.
It has received the Award of the Association of Ballet Artists of Serbia ‘Dimitrije Parlać’ for the play ‘Three Sisters or around Chekhov’ in 2008.

ISTER is the antic name of the Danube, the most important European river which connects more than 80 million people, who live in nine countries, speak dozens of languages, belong to different religions, foster their own historical memory, art, customs, myths and legends.
The Ister Theatre was founded on 1st January 1994 as a theatrical troupe whose work is characterised by exploration and merging of dance and dramatic techniques.
It was born out of the needs of a group of professional theatre artists to express their work through, until then, an atypical method of work in classical theatre, that is, through an everyday laboratory-research process, which provides actors and dancers with an opportunity to create an authentic expression – physical theatre. The work on personal stories, authentic observations about the world we live in and concrete emotions is of great importance, for such materials, after dramaturgical treatment, yield plays and performance art. Characters, situations, emotions, experiences, problems – an attempt to focus the public eye on the truth about the world we live in. Provocation, yet not an answer.
Space as a place of communication is one of the segments which determine the work on street performances fostered by the Ister Theatre as well.
The Ister Theatre has participated in a number of national and international festivals and taken their performances to Bulgaria, Romania, Great Britain, Italy, Holland, Germany, and Egypt, while videos produced by the Ister Theatre have been shown in Germany, Canada, England, Italy, Holland and Romania.