The Three Sisters in French and Russian (Theatre de l'Enfumeraie and Teatr Tembr)

Abstract

The   stage is small, its floor and walls covered in white cloth. To the right,   close to the edge of the stage, stands a half-size grand piano and a chair.   Behind the piano, ten white columns in the style of classical Greek   architecture are spaced out evenly in a semi-circle, leaving room between   them and the back wall for movement. As the spectators settle in for the   performance, a man dressed in early twentieth-century costume comes in and   plays the piano, his sounds -many of them discords -becoming increasingly   urgent. His tones echo Scriabin, Rachmaninov, Debussy, Satie and Ravel, but   are not the music of any of them.