Rory Mullarkey‘s new translation of Anton Chekhov’s Three Sisters made its world debut in the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse in January 2025. The play speaks to the human condition of hope, dreams, love and loss and follows the lives of three sisters, their brother and the people they meet along the way. Designer Oli Townsend spoke to Rebecca Maxwell, Globe Marketing Officer, about the journey this show went on from scribbles on a page to a beautifully intimate candlelit telling of what it means to be human.  

How did you come up with the initial concept for this production’s design? 

Caroline Steinbeis, the rest of the creative team and I started by chatting about the text and decided that we would stick to the period of 1890s Russia. We spent time in the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse to get a feel for the space because it is such a unique theatre – everything from the colour of the wood, to the proximity of every seat, to the acoustics and the candlelight. We looked at the low light levels and the movement of candlelight in the space with Anna Watson [lighting designer]. 

We wanted the design to take a lot of inspiration from the theatre being so special in itself rather than imposing too many grand ideas onto it. The concepts then developed simply and naturally as we responded to each other in the team and dug deeper into the play. Thankfully, I think we went on quite an exciting journey.

Each of Three Sisters’ four acts takes place in a different season – how did you bring this to life on stage? 

Rory [Mullarkey] reminded us of the seasonal change in the play. We wanted to incorporate this in the design as it naturally indicates a passage of time which is important to the story. All four acts therefore have their own unique character. For example, the first act is set in Spring and the space is open, bright, and colourful, and the way the cast are able to move around the stage reflects this. In contrast, act two occurs in winter about eighteen months later. The stage in this section feels darker, sparser, and more closed off with the cast entering in additional layers of costume. 

Something that came out of the R&D was the idea of the house being a character too. We wanted to use texture and décor to help bring some sense of the outside world inside; intending to create an environment that could situate us inside for the first three acts to then feel starkly different for the final act which occurs outside the house. 

Birch trees are referred to in the play and I became interested in these monochromatic textures, which feels organic and flesh-like and I hoped it would respond well to the candlelight. While rendering this in the scale model, I wanted to create four decorative panels on the back wall – each would represent a tree in a different season and was ordered by the play’s four acts: Spring, Winter, Summer, and Autumn. The tree motifs were finished in a gold-leaf, trapped within the heavily painted silver birch texture of the walls. The concept evolved naturally from the text and allowed the design to function as a backdrop to the story; changing without ever really changing at all. 

Let’s talk about the beautiful candles in the play and how they had an impact on the characters.  

We considered candles at every step of the way; comparing fabric samples under candle-light and even featuring some in the actual costumes. One example of this was the name-day headdress we invented for Irina to wear at the end of act one, loosely inspired by a combination of Slavic and Pagan traditions and, of course, the lighting of candles on a birthday cake. The headdress felt visually striking and well-suited to both the spirit of the scene and the Wanamaker itself; a candlelit theatre in contemporary London. 

Candles and flames felt similarly poignant for the act two scene between Masha and Vershinin. Lighting each other with handheld candles on a darkened stage made the atmosphere created by the candles feel intimate and risqué. As they move closer to each other, the candles add to their love and desire reignited after years of unhappy marriages. It almost sounds too on-the-nose a metaphor to show on stage, but it’s a beautiful scene and in a candlelit theatre it just felt right. 

Masha also wears a lot of dark clothes in the play. I’d love to talk about the thinking behind how colour fed into the costume design.  

Masha is described as wearing black possibly to represent her loss of hope in love or perhaps a habit born out of mourning their father. Or maybe she just likes black. One concept I felt excited about though was the introduction of a green thread within the black fabrics used for her dress in the final two acts. I wanted a green which would echo the colour of Vershinin’s military uniform and bring it into Masha’s costume at a point in the play when she’s clearly so full of love for him. We finally found the perfect fabric; a rich black silk with an emerald green pattern woven in. The finished dress is one my favourites of the show; it’s very beautiful and responds well to the varied lighting states of acts three and four. 

I decided to keep Irina in whites and off-whites throughout the four acts and to adjust the silhouette and shape of her costumes with the journey she goes on as a character. She is the youngest sister and starts out full of optimism and hope for the future but over the course of the play as she works various jobs and the years pass, her dreams of love and happiness in Moscow diminish. By the end of the play, Irina is in a comparable position to her eldest sister, Olga. As such, the shapes of Irina’s costumes become closer to those of Olga’s as the story progresses. 

It was lovely to work with Michelle Terry on Olga’s character. We discussed the spirit of a ‘suit of armour’ within the dresses that get through her day. A sense of duty and purpose were needed within her dresses, but we also wanted to draw on an instinct she has for self-preservation. Olga begins the play with a bright blue skirt and matching tie for act one but in the final act, her skirt and blouse combination echoes the first act but is cut thinner, straighter, and the colour stripped away to a much paler grey-blue. By the end of the play, we wanted to bring the colours of her costume closer to those in the set. 

Natalya is another fantastic character. I wanted her to feel distinctly different to the three sisters, who ridicule and other her, even before she arrives on stage. I wanted the difference in their fashion tastes to be striking; as contrasting in style as a group of friends on a night out in Chelsea might appear from a group going out in Newcastle or Manchester – both can look amazing but arguably belong to different tribes. We wanted to celebrate this character and have her feel distinct in her own personal tastes, which we see evolve as she grows in status. In act one, Natalya is anxious for approval in the eyes of the sisters. We know she likes greens and pinks; a combination Olga suggests ‘just doesn’t go’. By act four, we reinstate the same combination in a more refined way. 

All the characters in Three Sisters were great fun to design. Some of the changes and costume journeys are more nuanced, such Irina’s and Olga’s. Others have great big trajectories over the course of the show; changes which are more immediate and visible. It’s always a joy to start with some scribbles on paper and end up in such a layered and wonderful place on stage.  

Do you have any advice for aspiring designers and theatre-makers? 

Trust your instincts and enjoy the process! I feel really proud of this production; we kept things simple, trusted each other, and had a really nice time making it together. Working with people you like is incredibly rewarding, especially when the results on stage look good. That shared sense of pride is the best feeling. 

Three Sisters plays in the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse until 19 April. 

FINIS.