The Cherry Orchard

The Cherry Orchard
The National Theatre screened live from the Greenwich Picture house
June 2011

Few people would suggest that Chekhov’s plays are intensively dramatic and Howard Davies's new production of The Cherry Orchard - screened live from the National Theatre to cinemas around the globe - is no exception. The greatness of his writing lies in the dialogue, in the tone and particularly here, in the powerful and prescient political symbolism.

The play, first staged in 1904, both identifies and foretells the strong social undercurrents flowing through Russian society at the beginning of the 20th century. When Ranyevskaya (Zoe Wanamaker) stubbornly refuses to acknowledge the severity of her financial plight and the inevitable loss of her home and beloved cherry orchards, she surely represents the ultimate decline and fall of the Russian upper and upper-middle classes. Both the character and words of the radical but eternal student, Trofimov (Mark Bonnar) are eerily indicative of the revolution to come - the Tsar’s Guards firing on peaceful protesters in 1905 and the abdication of the Tsar himself only a dozen years later.

But Chekhov is much more than political symbolism, light comedy and farce never far from the surface. James Laurenson as Ranyevskaya's older brother is both amusing and absurd, constantly hiding from reality with irrelevant diatribes and imaginary games of billiards – “yellow into the middle pocket”. Tim McMullan turns Simyonov-Pischik, the endlessly-scrounging landowner into a bumbling fool for whom "something will eventually turn up". The main characters themselves are contradiction in terms; Ranyevskaya now stubborn, self-absorbed charismatic fool, now broken hearted mother and penniless wretch; Lopakhin (Conleth Hill), the merchant, at one moment assuaging his filial revenge the next declaring his undying love.

Wanamaker conveys her emotional dilemma with great sensitivity but it is Laurenson who catches the eye, ultimately losing himself in his own make-believe world. Claudie Blakely (Ranyevskaya’s adopted daughter) is equally strong, resolutely and with feeling awaiting a marriage proposal that she knows will never to arrive. Despite some irritatingly anachronistic dialogue -such as people "earning 25-30k a year" from Australian writer Andrew Upton and a surprising absence of cherry trees, the production is excellent, the Bunny Christie designed set, particularly impressive. Howard Davies has directed a series of successful productions at the National from Gorky’s Philistines to Bulgakov’s The White Guard, and once again he captures that distinctive Chekhovian mood.

As the estate is closed up, the old family retainer Firs (Kenneth Cranham) is inadvertently shut in, his way of life, literally in his case, consigned to the past.

A demanding but ultimately rewarding night out. 8/10

July 2011