The Cherry Orchard

This play is different every time I read it. When I was younger and still believed that my family's land would continue to be passed down the generations, it was tragic; when I had learned about the Japanese word "aware" it was beautiful; when I had learned something about how easily even clever women fall into traps and call them love, I wanted to believe somehow that Lyuba's generosity meant something anyway; as a young person of business I feared becoming Lopakhin with his, as it seemed to me, idealistic excuses for exploitation no different from those of the old aristocracy; after a few years of good fortune I looked less pityingly on old Pishtchik, whose attitude really isn't so absurd, though he may not be a gifted show more accountant.

Through this reading, though, all I could think about was Firs saying "They knew some way in those days.... They've forgotten. Nobody remembers how to do it." And I look out the window at people who don't remember when shoes were supposed to last more than one season, lenders weren't allowed to charge 25%, growing food wasn't just a health craze but a normal way of life, books didn't cost $10 plus a special $180 decoder gizmo that would be outmoded in a year - and I think about all the people my age who have no idea how to run a business or why it would be desirable to own land - and I think it may not be the cherry orchard, but the Firs of this world, the ones who remember good sense and precaution, the ones who knew their ancestors' knowledge, we must fear most to lose. show less

I read this prior to seeing a production of the Cherry Orchard at the Munich Kammerspiele. The translation is great and the notes provide significant insight.

Although the work is 100 years old, it speaks directly to our times.

The orchard and the thudding throes of its vast but stifling space creates a landscape-on-stage that combines the sensual world into an emptiness of sorts. One could see, smell and of course hear the sound of a hopelessness which screams with longing to be filled again with something substantial; not the same dead-habits of effluent but numb and cold gestural drift ... but with a slightly more deeper sense, to be sensed by two individuals.

. . .

A sad tale about an aristocratic family in decline. With their fortune spent and their ancestral home up for auction, they spend their last days recalling better times and overlooking opportunities to save themselves. It's mournful and haunting with layers of complexity and depth.

LATW audio production of the classic play recounting the challenges facing an aristocratic Russian family who desperately wants to maintain their way of life even as their finances fall on hard times. I found it challenging to keep characters straight in this one and wasn't always certain which character was who - possibly complicated by the complexities of Russian names. This would have been easier to keep straight in a traditional production as you have faces to track with the voice. Not a bad listen but not a play I'm likely to revisit.

Chekhov's play is great. When I started reading it, I was not expecting to be as engaged as I ended up being by it. I am aware that it is mostly considered a tragedy; however, after reading it, I see it as a tragicomedy, as I found funny and witty some of the dialog and actions.
Now, I would really love to see the play onstage!

Another example of how I'm usually disappointed when I listen to something that other people consider great, but which does not a priori sound appealing.

This probably reveals me as a philistine, but I just couldn't found much of value in this. We have a bunch of upper-class Russian twits who think the world owes them a living, who do absolutely nothing of value to anyone, not even things of abstract value like art or science, and who are bitterly disappointed when the tragedy that everyone has been warning them about for years finally arrives and no deus ex machina saves them.
The only character in the play I had the remotest sympathy for was the student who tells them to their faces that they are parasites and that their day is over, show more not that his warnings are heeded.

Maybe this play is viewed in the same way as Gone with the Wind nostalgia --- everyone who pines for this better simpler way of life assumes that for some reason they're going to be part of the aristrocracy in this alternate world, not one of the lower classes. show less