Russian Drama, Places - Drama, Comedy - Drama

The Cherry Orchard: A Comedy in Four Acts

Name: The Cherry Orchard: A Comedy in Four Acts
Author: Anton Chekhov
ISBN: 9780802130020

by Anton Chekhov, David Mamet, David Mamet (Translator)

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Overview

In The Cherry Orchard, Anton Chekhov's last full-length play, an impoverished landowning family is unable to face the fact that their estate is about to be auctioned off. Lopakhin, a local merchant, presents numerous options to save it, including cutting down their prized cherry orchard. But the family is stricken with denial. The Cherry Orchard charts the precipitous descent of a wealthy family and in the process creates a bold meditation on social change and bourgeois materialism.

Synopsis

Chekov's great tragicomic eulogy for a passing way of life is superbly adapted to make a powerful and beautifully playable drama. Plays for Performance Series.

NY Post

...a new, faithful, very playable and gorgeous translation by Jean-Claude van Itallie.

About the Author, Anton Chekhov

Anton Chekhov (1860-1904) first turned to writing as a medical student at Moscow University, from which he graduated in 1884. Among his early plays were short monologues (The Evils of Tobacco, 1885), one-act farces such as The Bear, The Proposal and The Wedding (1888-89) and the 'Platonov' material, adapted by Michael Frayn as Wild Honey. The first three full-length plays to be stage, Ivanov (1887), The Wood Demon (1889) and The Seagull (1896) were initially failures. But the Moscow Arts Theatre's revival of The Seagull two years later was successful and was followed by his masterpieces, Uncle Vanya (1889), Three Sisters (1901), and The Cherry Orchard in 1904, the year of his death.