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The Cherry Orchard Modern Plays Tom Murphy Anton Chekhov 9780413774033 Books

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The Cherry Orchard Modern Plays Tom Murphy Anton Chekhov 9780413774033 Books

Lubow and her daughter Anya return from their long absence in Paris to her landed gentry ancestral estate. She is penniless after squandering all the money she had, and then a lot she didn't, in addition to having been virtually robbed by her second husband. She gets there just in time for the estate, including the vast, old cherry orchard, about to be auctioned for the ever increasing dept. The impoverished nobility is still served and despised by the children of the slaves that the family owned. Lopakhin, a dubious family friend and an unenthusiastic would-be suitor to Lubow's adopted daughter Varya and whose father was once a peasant serf on the estate, is now a rich land developer. He tries to convince Lubow and her brother Leo to sell the orchard for re-division into villa-in-the-country plots in order to get her out of the ever increasing debt. But Lubow is paralyzed. For her the cherry orchard is her tie to her previous life, to her childhood, without which she has no existence. At the end the orchard is bought by Lopathin at the auction and the family leaves and is dispersed while the sounds of axes felling the cherries resonate in the background.
As many, if not all of Chekhov's writings, the play is a painful satire on the intellectual vacuum and the existential stupidity of Russian penniless nobility, pathetic intellectuals, and fawning useless servants. The emerging moneyed class is not much better, looking on possession as the only proof of worth. There are more characters in this play and they are all pathetic, ridiculous, avaricious, pompous. Whether Chekhov thought it was a comedy or not, it projects the feeling of despair.
In many ways, selling the orchard is like abandoning Tara. But Lopakhin is no Rett Butler. He is successful but has no flair, not even roguish appeal. The play is beautifully written and the characters painted with a fine and sensitive brush. It even does have modern relevance, where the previously respected old money and academic intellect give way to a new generation of fast Wall Street operators, transitory sports, rock, and reality celebrities - a new world of virtual values. But to fully appreciate Chekhov's masterpiece, one has to understand the Russian melancholic "soul", which permeates the atmosphere of the play. Dated but great!


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The Cherry Orchard Modern Plays Tom Murphy Anton Chekhov 9780413774033 Books Reviews

Good
Translation was a little odd as everyone called each other different names than the stage names in the script, so it was even harder to follow, but I'm a sucker for classic stories, so 3 stars.
Bought this for my college English class. It does explore different themes and is okay for the price, though if you are looking into elaborate plays, this is not much in detail.
Cherry trees, in particular, of all trees, can touch many a soul. Japan is famous for its “Hanami festivals,” that brief period of 10 days or so, each spring, when the cherry trees are in blossom. For many a Japanese, it is de rigueur to picnic under a cherry tree during the festival, and celebrate the return of warmth, longer days, and a renewal of the earth’s bounty. Many other places also celebrate this period, including Washington, DC. Anton Chekhov commences his play with Lubov Ranevsky, a Russian landowner, returning to her home on the steppe, after numerous years abroad, in May, when her own cherry orchard, is in full bloom. As she says “After the dark autumns and the cold winters, you’re young again, full of happiness, the angels of heaven haven’t left you…”

Chekhov is one of Russia’s most famous writers. He was prolific – often due to financial needs. He presented realistic portraits of the spectrum of individuals who composed Russian society in the late 19th Century. His own life was not easy… which can lend empathy to the troubles of others. Parts of “The Cherry Orchard” are autobiographical, since his family also experienced economic want, loss of a home, and displacement as a result. He had health problems, contracting tuberculosis in his ‘20’s, and dying from it at 44. Regrettably, it has taken me a long time to finally read this play, since I was first inspired by Linda Christmas’ portrait of Thatcherian England of the ‘80’s, entitled Chopping Down the Cherry Trees Portrait of Britain in the Eighties.

The plays dominant themes concern economic and social transition. Chekhov successfully includes a range of characters who represent Russian society at the time. There are the land-owning aristocrats, failing to adapt to changing economic forces. The emancipation of the serfs, in 1861, is one of the causes of these changes, and resonates throughout the play. It is Lopakhin, a well-to-do merchant, and the son of a former serf, who is at the vanguard of these economic forces. He is the one who wants to chop down those cherry trees, and erect villas on the land, for the expanding population. As he says “Up to now in the villages there were only the gentry and the laborers, and now the people who live in the villas have arrived. Another memorable character, Fiers, is a “footman,” hard of hearing at age 87, a former serf, who views his own emancipation as a “misfortune.” Anticipating today’s world of “perpetual students,” another character is Trofimov, who in turn anticipates the “creative destruction” economic theory of Joseph Schumpeter, and says of Lopakhin “Just as the wild beast which eats everything it finds is needed for changes to take place in matter, so you are needed too.”

There are several other characters, including Dunyasha, with her inconsequential yearnings of love, Ivanovna, a “cheeky” governess, a couple other landowners, as well as Lubov’s two daughters, Anya, age 17, and Varya, who is adopted, and is age 27. Some of their interactions provided useful social background, other interactions seemed utterly irrelevant to Chekhov’s central themes, and did not even serve as a meaningful counterpoint. In addition, the ending seemed overdrawn, and unnecessary. Two to five “tight lines” could have captured the essence of the situation… along with the ax in the background, chopping the trees down.

The latter is an enduring metaphor, this play is rated as one of the best 100 in some rating systems, I am definitely glad that I finally read it, yet overall, I feel that it is only 4-stars.
This review is for the translation, rather than the original. The original is a classic, which needs no review. It's been relevant for over 100 years and there is no need to discuss it further.
The translation is poor. I acquired this book for my child as a school read. She was required to read it in English rather than in Russian by her teacher. As a result, this book was completely lost on her, even though she grew up in a Russian-speaking environment and visited Russia on several occasions. When I asked her to read it in Russian, she realized how many critical things were inaccurately translated and the book started to make sense to her.
Most people won't have the luxury to read the Russian original, but this translation should be avoided.
This translation was fluent without being either out-dated or "modernized". What made this edition particularly helpful for me was the great introduction. In a relaxed, readable way, the editor gave biographical, historical, literary and textual information that really alerted me to the wonders of this play. I bought and read this to prepare for watching the play on stage and ended up liking this translation better than the more famous, recently-published one used in the production (full of modern slang!) And all the introductory notes helped me look for the wonderful complexity and depth of this play.
Lubow and her daughter Anya return from their long absence in Paris to her landed gentry ancestral estate. She is penniless after squandering all the money she had, and then a lot she didn't, in addition to having been virtually robbed by her second husband. She gets there just in time for the estate, including the vast, old cherry orchard, about to be auctioned for the ever increasing dept. The impoverished nobility is still served and despised by the children of the slaves that the family owned. Lopakhin, a dubious family friend and an unenthusiastic would-be suitor to Lubow's adopted daughter Varya and whose father was once a peasant serf on the estate, is now a rich land developer. He tries to convince Lubow and her brother Leo to sell the orchard for re-division into villa-in-the-country plots in order to get her out of the ever increasing debt. But Lubow is paralyzed. For her the cherry orchard is her tie to her previous life, to her childhood, without which she has no existence. At the end the orchard is bought by Lopathin at the auction and the family leaves and is dispersed while the sounds of axes felling the cherries resonate in the background.
As many, if not all of Chekhov's writings, the play is a painful satire on the intellectual vacuum and the existential stupidity of Russian penniless nobility, pathetic intellectuals, and fawning useless servants. The emerging moneyed class is not much better, looking on possession as the only proof of worth. There are more characters in this play and they are all pathetic, ridiculous, avaricious, pompous. Whether Chekhov thought it was a comedy or not, it projects the feeling of despair.
In many ways, selling the orchard is like abandoning Tara. But Lopakhin is no Rett Butler. He is successful but has no flair, not even roguish appeal. The play is beautifully written and the characters painted with a fine and sensitive brush. It even does have modern relevance, where the previously respected old money and academic intellect give way to a new generation of fast Wall Street operators, transitory sports, rock, and reality celebrities - a new world of virtual values. But to fully appreciate Chekhov's masterpiece, one has to understand the Russian melancholic "soul", which permeates the atmosphere of the play. Dated but great!