INTRODUCTION
The world is changing and changing. The richest man in the district was born the poorest serf. The train is shattering the once sweeping estates into affordable blocks. The telegraph strangles peace and solitude, leaving only pressure and isolation. The twentieth century is breathing its hot breath down their soft aristocratic necks. With a faith born out of an absurd capacity to misunderstand, they cling to the belief that there will be some miraculous solution at the eleventh hour.
(Source: STC Season programme)
THE STORY
A once wealthy Russian lady, Lyubov Ranevskaya, returns from Paris to find her estate rundown by mismanagement and mounting debts. Her entourage is met by those family retainers who stayed, including her brother Gaev and former peasant Lopakhin, now a rich merchant. The plot then follows the sale of the estate, and in particular of the cherry orchard, which is chopped down and turned into building plots for holiday homes.
The fate of the beautiful orchard becomes a symbol of the fate of all of the characters.
First performed on 30 January 1904 in Russia at the Moscow Art Theatre. It was directed by Konstantin Stanislavsky, who saw the play as a tragedy, while its author had originally intended it as a comedy. This caused much disagreement between Stanislavsky and Chekhov.
CHARACTER DESCRIPTION - Yermolái Alexeyevitch Lopakhin
Lopakhin is the son of peasants on Madame Ranevskaya's estate, who has become a wealthy businessman. Lopakhin is an extremely self-conscious man, perpetually complaining about his lack of education and refinement and fleeing emotionally from his memories of his brutal upbringing as a peasant. But Lopakhin is also a character full of details, plans, and action. More than any other character in the play, he is constantly in charge of driving the play forward. He is the one who suggests the solution to the estate's financial problems: by cutting down the orchard and selling it as plots for holiday cottages, the family will be guaranteed an income.
There is a constant tension between Lopakhin and Madame Ranevskaya, which only resolves itself when he finally persuades her to sell the cherry orchard.
If only my father and my grandfather could rise from their graves and see the whole affair, how their Yermolái, their flogged and ignorant Yermolái, who used to run about barefooted in the winter, how this same Yermolái had bought a property that hasn't its equal for beauty anywhere in the whole world! I have bought the property where my father and grandfather were slaves, where they weren't even allowed into the kitchen.
Excerpt from Lopakhin's speech in Act III |
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When I wrote the part of Lopakhin I thought of it as your part... True, Lopakhin is a merchant, but he's a decent person in the full sense of the words and his bearing must be that of a completely dignified and intelligent man. There must be nothing petty about him, no tricks...
Anton Chekhov in a letter to Stanislavky (1903) |
In real life, people don't spend every minute shooting each other, hanging themselves, making confessions of love. They don't spend all the time saying clever things, they're occupied with eating, drinking, flirting and talking nonsense.
These are the things which ought to be shown on the stage.
Anton Chekhov |
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THE CHERRY ORCHARD
Full Cast & Crew
