by Ché Walker
Sibling Symphony
We've come a long way from when Anton Chekhov wrote "The Three Sisters" - a few world wars, a Cold War and now it's
difficult to decipher what's a civil war, what's a world war and what's a
computer game with every fatal, maiming or displacing consequence.
It may be a plus that The Etienne Sisters, a
90-minute, no-interval three-hander, written and directed by Ché Walker with
songs by Annoushka Lucas and Sheila Atim, planted this thought in the
mind of TLT and her getaway car.
On the other hand, there were times when this
"play with songs" reminded them of the Scottish island fishing expeditions which had taken on a prominent role by
the final scene.
Three "griefed up" sisters, Bo (Allyson
Ava-Brown), Tree (Nina Toussaint-White) and Ree (Jennifer Saayeng), all sharing
the same father (presumably with eponymous Francophone Etienne name), come
together for the funeral of their mother and stepmother.
Opening credits rolling on back wall projections as
pianist (Nikki Yeoh) plays with a classical flourish may give us a clue this
isn't just a family history but ambitiously attempts to put a perspective on
TV, film, literature and music as a whole.
And maybe war, politics, economics, technology and history itself.
Half sister Bo is a trickster, fleeing a drug gang
boss with the surname of a French movie director of gangster movies
(!!!).
Bo disrupts
the cooperative unity of supermarket checkout "girl" Tree, also
apparently given responsibility for delivering store cash, and her dependent
sister Ree.
The three actors discharge their roles and songs
with aplomb but in the end the throwing in of disparate narrated plot threads in mainly static monologues proved
underwhelming and lacked compelling pace.
Maybe the piece, with its attempt at a playful
dissection of drama and history, falls victim to the very forms it discusses - for it turned into a telegraphed predictable
soap alternating with episodes from what felt like a different play.
And despite evocative set, lighting and video design by Ti Green, Arnim
Friess and Louis Price respectively, TLT and her motorised steed did wonder whether it would
have worked better in a smaller space and even as an entirely sung-through
piece. While it feels like a flawed work in
progress, an amber light for its ambition, ideas and performances.
Tickets to The Etienne Sisters
courtesy of
courtesy of
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