The Cherry Orchard is one of Russian author Anton Chekhov's wonderful, obtuse explorations of life. It follows a cast of no fewer than 11 characters comprising a family, friends, lovers and servant as they revisit their old home hours out from the nearest city. Mother of two surviving children Ranevskaya and her brother Gaev are drowning in debt, and their beloved childhood cherry orchard is being forced under the gavel to pay for it. Will they find another way, or will they have to sell the place and scatter elsewhere to lead their lives?
Chekhov's characters are full of a dark comedy. Their fumbling attempts at interaction and reopening of relationships closed for many years are full of a sort of desperate scrabbling at something that has been irrecoverably lost along the way. In this production of The Cherry Orchard, the characters' awkward driftings and bursts of pointless passion are set to a live musical accompaniment that lends the whole play a haunting, heavy air and gives weight to every utterance.
The Cherry Orchard possesses what can only be described as a gloomy Russian melancholy — the characters know what they want from life, and often even what they need to do to obtain it, but find themselves incapable of actually achieving anything. Though you may finish the play unsure of the significance of what has gone before, you'll have a wonderful time along the way.
