The Cherry Orchard

The last great play by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov, The Cherry Orchard, was premiered in January 1904, when the author had already been seriously ill. After the premiere, he wrote a letter to his editor Batyushkov saying, they gave me an ovation, so lavish, warm, and really so unexpected, that I can’t get over it even now. Six months later, Chekhov passed away, and The Cherry Orchard became and has remained his most produced play ever since.
By subtitling it as a Comedy in Four Acts despite the glaringly tragic circumstances of the protagonist family and an entire generation of characters, Chekhov gives clear reading instructions for the play.
Chekhov is hardly sentimental towards his characters, or people in general, but he does have empathy, love, and faith for them. Speaking of change and how it is impossible, Chekhov expresses a variety of views through his characters across generational divides to juxtapose the old and the new, material and spiritual, and to invite us to join the discussion. We get his characters. We don’t judge them. There is no room for drama, only for a deeply felt empathy. Through the melodius structure of the play and the rhythmic and poetic quality of his words, Chekhov composes a symphony about an ever changing society. Or as Peter Brook would describe it, Chekhov is a dramatist of life’s flow, sombre and joyous, funny and bitter at the same time. He is a shrewd observer of the human comedy.