The Cherry Orchard - Introduction
Welcome to this introduction to The Cherry Orchard. The playwright is Anton Chekhov, and this version has been translated by Tom Stoppard.
The audio-described performance at the Milton Court Theatre will be on Friday 20th October. There will be a touch tour at 6pm. The introductory notes will be read via your headsets in the auditorium at 7:15pm. The performance itself will begin at 7:30. The production lasts for approximately 2 hours and 15 minutes, including a 20 minute interval. The live audio description will be given by Ben Cook, who is astudent at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. All the actors in this play are also students, in their third and final year of study.
The Cherry Orchard is set in provincial Russia at the turn of the 20th century. Madame Liubov Ranevskaya and her daughter, Anya, return home from Paris to find that their family estate is about to be sold at auction to pay off debt. They turn to Lopakhin, a local merchant, who presents numerous options to save it, including cutting down their prized cherry orchard. Family pride combined with a spirit of procrastination prevents their accepting this suggestion. They continue to believe that some miracle will save their orchard, andthus they drift along until the day set for the sale.
As we take our seats in the auditorium, the stage is open to us. The floor is made up of pine planks, painted with floral patterns of faded pinks and greens. Different floral patterns surround the edge of the stage, all muted creams, blues and pinks. The patterns are large, and repeated up the sides and across the top of the stage, framing the action. In the theatre box in the auditorium on the left is a small band, made up of an upright piano, a violin and a flute. Occasionally, anunseen guitar plays.
We visit three locations around Ranevskaya’s estate.
The first is the old nursery. A long table sits side on to us in the centre of the room, covered in a red tablecloth with golden flowery details. Mismatching mahogany and bentwood chairs sit around it. In the middle of the table is a small lit silver candelabrum, which gently illuminates the area. Closer to us on the left is a chaise longue, upholstered in an ornate patterned blue fabric. Several decorative cushions sit on this, all of which are richly coloured with golds, reds and purples. On the other side of the room closest to us is an armchair and matching foot rest. Beside this, a small occasional table. At the back of the nursery is the house’s entrance hall, separated from the nursery by large white gauze curtains and three tall pillars, which are spread across the width of the room. These are wooden and plain, apart from a carved decoration halfway up, typical of a Russian dacha house.
People enter the nursery from the entrance hall at the back, from another entrance to the house on the left, or they go into Anya’s bedroom, unseen on the right hand side.
When we leave the nursery, we go outdoors, to the family estate. Two of the pillars at the back have risen out of view, leaving just the one in the middle, and a new pillar has come in from above at the front. Telegraph wires connect these two pillars. The gauze curtains and furniture have been removed, apart from the main table, which is transformed into a wooden bench. This sits in the middle at a slight angle. At the back, the colours of light tell us the time of day.
After the interval, we return indoors, to a drawing room in the house. This is set for a dancing party, with festoons of coloured silk lanterns hanging above the room. The patterns that earlier surrounded the nursery are now on bunched curtains that hang decoratively on either side. They form the two entrances to the room. On the left, people come and go from the ballroom, where the main dance is, and on the right, a billiards room and a hall to other areas of the house. Everywhere apart from the drawing room remains unseen.Fourchairs are dotted around the room, left, right and centre, with a small table by one of them. People group here for conversation and to rest from the dancing, although people constantly dance through the room as an extension to the ballroom.A single pillar stands in the middle at the back of the room.
At the beginning of The Cherry Orchard, a group of four people return from Paris:Ranevskaya, Anya, Charlotta and Yasha. They arrive at the house dressed in haute couture fashion, fresh from their time in modern Paris. Everything they wear is black and white and tailored. Slowly, as they spend more time in the countryside, they adapt back to the local dress. Clothing becomes more traditional, colourful and patterned. Blouses become frillier and looser. Skirts are ankle length with bands of embroidery. The men wear shirts, waistcoats and trousers of reds, greens and purples. Their trousers are cotton and baggy, and they all wear large brown or black boots. All ladies keep their hair in a tight bun and gentlemen’s hair is short and well kept.
Leading the travel party home is Liubov Andreevna Ranevskaya, I will be calling her Ranevskaya. She’s in her 40’s, but looks a lot younger. She’s been away in Paris for some time, and upon return to her Russian home, she is the image of a proud woman. Ranevskaya stands tall and poised with unfailingly good posture. She has a petite figure, and dresses well. Her hair is blonde and her face lightly made up, with red lipstick. She arrives wearing a fashionably oversized white jacket, and a long white skirt with two black stripes.
Ranevskaya does adapt back to the local clothing but she still retains the glamour of her Parisian lifestyle. Her dresses are long and flowing, and she accompanies them with expensive looking jewellery.Ranevskayafixes people she’s talking to with a long and deep stare.As she talks she uses expressive gestures, and walks with a sensual sway.
Her daughter isAnya: seventeen, and on the cusp of womanhood. Sometimes she skips around, moving uninhibitedly. Other times, however, she acquires an air of grace, but still clearly self-conscious, fiddling with her hands, and giggling to herself. She has long, sandy-blonde hair, which, when she first arrives back at the house, is windswept and dishevelled under a black beret. Arriving back from Paris, she wears a black and white striped bodice and small jacket. Her ankle-length skirt is chequered black and white.
They return with Charlotta Ivanovna, who travelled with Anya as her governess. A remarkable lady, her estranged parents were circus performers, and she has inherited their skill for illusions. She showboats around, hands on hips, feet spread, head held high. Charlotta is quite a tall woman, with black hair kept in a tight bun. Her face is made up with darkened eyebrows, eyeliner and deep red lipstick.
Her outfits are small, decorative jackets and trousers which are loose fitting and high waisted.
The final member of the travelling party is Yasha, a young manservant who worked for Ranevskaya in Paris. For a servant, he’s remarkably well kept, in grey suits, cravats and slicked-back black hair. The edges of his mouth are permanently downturned in a sneer. When asked to do a job, he rolls his eyes and shows no sense of urgency in completing it, roaming around the place.
When the travelling party arrive, they are well greeted by friends and family alike. These people are all dressed inthe traditional Russian clothing that the travellers adapt into. Two members of Ranevskaya’s family live in the house, her older brother, Gaev, and her adopted daughter, Varya.
Leonid Andreich Gaev, is Ranevskaya’s older brother, 51 years old. I will be calling him Gaev. He is obsessed with billiards, constantly dropping different moves or tactics into conversation, using his walking stick to mime a shot. He also has a penchant for lemon drops, always carrying a tin of them around. Gaev has short grey hair and a grey beard. His waistcoat is blue with golden decoration on the front. When outdoors or travelling, he wears a long brown overcoat and traditional furry brown cossack hat.
Varya, 24, has been responsible for the running of the house during her mother’s absence. As she hurries around the house, striding with purpose, a large set of keys jangle constantly from her belt. She’s much more uptight than her younger sister, Anya, with a permanently clenched jaw and fists. Varya’s eyes are piercing and her lips pursed. She wears very modest long-sleeved outfits of reds and purples,accompaniedby a traditional shawl around her shoulders.
The local merchant, who the family turn to for advice about the estate, is Yermolai Alexeievitch Lopakhin, whom I will call Lopakhin. He is a well built man and has short brown hair which parts down the middle. He saunters around, using airy gestures. Lopakhin’s clothes are very baggy and most of themare striped light green and red. He often wears a long purple scarf and furry brown overcoat.
A local resident and family friend of the Ranevskayas is Boris Borisovich Simeonov-Pishchik, known as Pishchik. He is an aristocrat who has recently fallen on hard times. His health, too, is not what is used to be, and just walking often makes him breathless. He is prone to falling asleep and snoring halfway through sentences! However, he still makes an effort with his appearance. Pishchik has short wavy brown hair and a well-kept beard. He wears green and red suits with a red cravat and velvet trousers. He has a long green and gold coat and a golden hat.
Another family friend is Petya Trofimov. Known as the ‘eternal student’, he is 26 years old, but still studying. He wears small round glasses, has short black hair and thin wisps of a beard. He stands stiffly upright, pensive, and doesn’t make much physical contact with other people.All of Trofimov’s clothes are brown and worn out. His pale waistcoat is several sizes too small, his scarf is practically in tatters, and his trousers, although worn high up on his waist, sag down well past his heels.
Yepikohodov is the estate’s clerk. He’s clumsy, and seems to trip up everywhere he goes. However he always has a grin and a chuckle, even when it might not be appropriate. He sometimes likes to try and play the guitar.Yepikhodov wears red and mustard yellow clothes.
One of the servants in the house is Dunyasha, a young housemaid. Still in her teens, she is often a flurry of energy around the house, skipping backwards and forwards doing her chores. She’s tall, and sometimes slightly wobbly on her feet. Her exaggerated ladylike movements are sometimes tense and appear forced. She wears floral outfits and brightly coloured dresses.
Another servant is Firs, who is 87 years old and still working as a valet. He’s hugely bent over and relies on a wooden stick to walk. He shuffles around very slowly, step by step, and leans on the closest piece of furniture for support. Lots of the time, he mutters indistinctly to himself, talking to no one in particular. Firs’ hair is long and white, and so is his bushy beard and moustache. His face is very pale and wrinkled, and his eyes squint when he looks at people. The clothes he wears are old: a brown waistcoat on top of a baggy blue shirt, and light brown trousers with black boots.
At various other points we meet two other characters from the local town. A passer-by on the family’s estate who’s dressed in rags, and the station master, who’s been invited to the party.
Cast and Production credits
Ranevskaya is played by Georgina Beedle
Anya by Mhairi Gayer
Charlotta by Phoebe Marshall
Yasha by Ryan Quarmby
Varya by Rosalind Lailey
Gaev by Rory Francis
Lopakhin by Alex James-Cox
Pishchik by Nicholas Armfield
Trofimov by Zachary Wyatt
Yepikhodov by Ellis Howard
Dunyasha by Tallulah Bond
Firs by Dan Whitlam
The Passer-By and Station Master by Tom Glenister
The Set and Costume Design is by Polly Sullivan
The Lighting Design is by Johanna Town
The Sound Design is by Eleanor Coxall
The Music is composed by Colm Molloy
And the Director is Christian Burgess
If you have any questions about your visit, please do not hesitate to contact the co-ordinator, Ben Cook, on .