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Title: The Cherry Orchard (Plays for Performance) by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov, Robert Brustein, George Calderon ISBN: 1-56663-086-X Publisher: Ivan R. Dee Publisher Pub. Date: 01 January, 1990 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.83 (18 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: A heartbreak and a smile
Comment: As I read this play, my family is in the process of moving a thousand miles away from the farm where I grew up. Though I am so far away from the Russian culture and time of this play, the themes of place, tradition, and inevitable change resonated inside of me, and I am grateful to Chekhov for the way he has handled them.
The Cherry Orchard is a play about change, and the symbolism is pretty easy to recognize. What makes it stand apart, I think, from a thousand other plays on the same theme is its wonderful sense of comedy, of smiling sadness. Chekhov all his life insisted it was a comedy. As the Cherry Orchard slips away from the Ranevskys, they seem to smile at its going. As they are unable to change their habits -- still lending money they don't have, still spending extravagantly -- they quietly laugh at their own foolishness. The change comes, and they leave, heartbroken -- but embracing the change at the same time, only feebling struggling against it. One feels saddest, in the end, for Lopakhin, the new owner of the Cherry Orchard. He seems to believe he has bought happiness and friends, but is quickly discovering the emptiness of money and possessions, as no one wants to borrow from him, and no one seems to pay him much heed at all.
Chekhov paints with a fine brush, and I appreciate that. There is no thunderstorming, no ranting and raving in this work. There is a fine and subtle, sad and comedic portrayal of a family and a place encountering change. It is a heartbreak with a smile.
The translation, though the only one I've read, seems good. It is easy to follow and rich in simple feeling.
if you'd like to discuss this play with me, or recommend something i might enjoy, or just chat, e-mail me at [email protected].
Rating: 5
Summary: A classic meditation on fundamental questions of life
Comment: "How should one live?" is the fundamental question driving most of Chekhov's work, and it is very overtly laid bare in The Cherry Orchard. Should the aristocratic family in decline stick to owning their cherry orchard (representative of the grandiose trappings of Russian aristocracy), or give in to modern commercialization in order to survive? What is the value of tradition, and how many trees should one own? Chekhov will not answer these questions for you, but he poses them in most interesting ways. In addition to wise insights into such fundamental dilemmas, Chekhov also provides a lot of witty banter, and a great slice-of-life view at 19th century Russian high culture. But this is not just a Russian play or a 19th century play; its themes, questions, and prospective answers are relevant for individuals coping with society and history in any place, and at any time.
Rating: 1
Summary: A dreadful play.
Comment: "The Cherry Orchard" is an atrocious play. If we hold this play in high regard, then we dramatist's need to reevaluate our standards. Chekhov wrote a play that will make you not care an inch about the character's or their situation(s). For him to think that this is a comedy makes you wonder if he understood the point he himself was trying to make. The characters are pathetic and they'll make you pity them - not because of their predicaments, but because of whom they are. I do not recommend.
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Title: Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett ISBN: 0802130348 Publisher: Grove Press Pub. Date: 01 August, 1997 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: Four Major Plays: A Doll House, the Wild Duck, Hedda Gabler, the Master Builder (Signet Classics (Paperback)) by Henrik Ibsen ISBN: 0451524063 Publisher: Signet Book Pub. Date: 01 September, 1989 List Price(USD): $6.95 |
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Title: Three Plays: Desire Under the Elms, Strange Interlude, Mourning Becomes Electra by Eugene O'Neill, Eugene Gladstone O'Neill, Random House Vintage Books ISBN: 0679763961 Publisher: Vintage Books USA Pub. Date: 01 November, 1995 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: Death of A Salesman by Arthur Miller ISBN: 0140481346 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: 06 October, 1998 List Price(USD): $11.00 |
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Title: Importance of Being Earnest (Dover Thrift Editions) by Oscar Wilde ISBN: 0486264785 Publisher: Dover Publications Pub. Date: 01 July, 1990 List Price(USD): $1.00 |
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