FASCINATIOn
By Sarah Sigal
“...masterfully performed solo by Susanna Fiore... the core of desperation found in Chekhov’s characters completely sings throughout the piece”
Fascination was originally developed as a short play for the Miniaturists at the Arcola in 2015. It is loosely based on Chekhov's play Three Sisters, focusing on Masha’s storyline, setting the play in the Soviet period (1976) and using Young Americans, David Bowie’s album of the same year, as a kind of musical roadmap.
Sound designer Chris Williams incorporated Bowie’s musical signatures into the play and created a score for the piece, allowing the music to inform Masha’s emotional journey. At the end of the play, after the audience has heard the story of Masha’s affair with Lieutenant Vershinin, they learn that Masha has been telling it to the KGB, who are interrogating her because Vershinin has defected to the West.
Fascination used Chekhov’s story in order to explore the ways in which the environment of a police state and the ways in which people entrap themselves can intertwine.