The riveting and sexually charged performance by Robert Loggia as Solyony in the Actors Studio production of Three Sisters at the Aldwych theatre in 1965 is one of the reasons why Lee Strasberg’s much excoriated production remains nevertheless stubbornly in the intellect. Part of the criticism was a broader attack on the method of acting created by Konstantin Stanislavsky in Russia at the turn of the last century,particularly as it was understood by Strasberg in postwar novel York – and which Loggia had studied – the one inviting the actor to imagine in what ways he is like the character, the other in what ways the character is like him. Both exercise emotional memories to obtain their ends.
Special derision was heaped upon Sandy Dennis, or an actor much admired in other parts,whose Irina was thought so mannered as to be risible. But there were other things, as well as Loggia’s performance, and that keep the production alive in the intellect,above all Kim Stanley’s performance as Masha, which had a blazing intensity that was astonishing and alarming. This was acting that was ungoverned, or on the edge,overdone, and in some ways former-fashioned; out on a limb and marvellous.
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Source: theguardian.com