★★★☆☆
Three Stars
Of course, one goes in to a production like this slightly apprehensively. Chekhov is a difficult one at the best of times and a student production – with a student translation, I might add! – could easily turn out to be two and a half long hours of bad theatre. In fact, what I witnessed at The Cherry Orchard was a carefully staged, thought-out and well-cast production.
The casting choices seem to have been made with care, with each actor being able to carry off their character, if not with ease, then certainly successfully. Each character in Chekhov is equally important in their unimportance, each represents a demonstration of the human inability to change anything. The cast manage this admirably by being able to focus the attention of the audience on them when they must, then fade into the background when another character rises to the proverbial spotlight. Lyubov’s (Fiona Johnston) oscillation between despair and intense childishness quickly becomes the central part of the play it should be, without undermining any of the others.
The atmosphere is established from the very beginning, as live music guides the audience into the theatre and the two opening characters are already onstage, creating the scene. The set is elaborately done, with the contrast between dusty relics and carefully arranged photographs and paintings being an interesting and sensitive choice. The lighting is also used to mould the tone of the piece and it is taken advantage of suitably, by recreating changes in the day as well. It also allows the second act to begin with a bang which, to anyone having any doubts as to whether they are enjoying themselves in the interval, disperses them and prepares them for an enjoyable second half.
They say to translate is to own and interpret, and to an extent this is visible. However, there were some cases where perhaps the directing was trying a touch too hard to make it modern or fun, and some of the original feeling was irrevocably lost. An important example is Varya (Katie-Rose Comery). What I originally – erroneously – wrote off as bad acting, was in fact, a directorial instruction to turn the sombre, deeply religious adopted-yet-abandoned sister into a flirty, confused thing. This almost ruined the ending for me, and confused some around me who were not as familiar with The Cherry Orchard to begin with.
The Cherry Orchard is something between an elegy for the past and an ode to stubbornness. This is certainly put across in every way, cast, stage and script. Despite some drawbacks and – at times – confused directorial choices, it is a play worth seeing for those who are familiar with the work and newcomers alike.
