THREE SISTERS Southwark Playhouse, London SE1

Everybody is in love with the wrong person. Anton Chekhov’s great play is a bitter tirade against life’s injustices, its unrealized dreams and its opportunities missed: “What is to become of us? Life is slipping by and it will never come back.” One of the reasons for the play’s enduring success is that audiences can so easily identify with the characters’ pain and anguish. The play is not the tragedy of any one individual but the concerted tragedy of a whole group of people. Anya Reiss has reworked the 1900 text and set it in the 21st century, a totally unnecessary exercise. The sisters are now in the Middle East and want to go to London. The emotional content sometimes works; but the modern context regularly jars. Russell Bolam’s production has a good cast. Emily Taafe as Masha is especially good. But many will feel Chekhov has been short-changed.