The pandemic-era audience has to work harder

THE recent staging of Chekhov's Three Sisters by Singapore's Nine Years Theatre and New York's SITI Company polarised the audience like no other show at the Singapore International Festival of Arts.

The Singaporean cast on stage had to act alongside an American cast whose performances were projected onto the backdrop. Of the three sisters, only Irina (Mia Chee) appeared on stage. Her older sisters (Ellen Lauren and Akiko Aizawa) had to be beamed in.

If it all sounds rather bizarre, it is. But it was the only solution to the fact that the Americans couldn't fly into Singapore. So co-directors Nelson Chia and Darron L West had to reimagine the play within these limitations and artfully milk the script for all its existential jokes about the tragedy of living.