The Cherry Orchard

This final work by the Russian playwright Anton Chekhov was originally intended as a comedy-drama.  Although there is some humour in the play, sometimes verging on farce, the story is, basically, a tragic one concerning an aristocratic family's financial and social demise during the social upheaval in Tsarist Russia at the beginning of the 20th century.  So it was, with this new adaptation by Tom Stoppard.

As Director, John Bell had attempted to bring out the many facets and temperaments of the individual characters.  Amongst the most notable was Nancy Jones as widowed landowner Liubov Ranevskaya, the central character, who has returned to her beloved family estate and renowned cherry orchard, following an attempted suicide after a disastrous love affair in Paris. Her dynamic portrayal of a passionate, but vulnerably naive woman, desperate to hold on to her property despite impending financial ruin, was convincing and believable.  She was well-supported by Amber Cope as her young daughter Anya and Becky Faulkner as austere and controlling adopted daughter Varya.

Granville Rush gave a plausibly comic performance as Liubov's eccentric brother Gaev. Amanda Green, as Charlotte Ivanovna, the family's eccentric and stoical German governess and companion for Anya, brought a welcome lightness to her performance, with a strong German accent, accomplishing card tricks with aplomb during the family's party.  Doug Sheppard added to the humour with his portrayal of Simeonov-Pishchik, another old aristocrat and friend of the family, constantly coming up with new business ideas and trying to tap Liubov for a loan and Paul Winspear, in his debut role with the company as left-wing "eternal" student Trofimov, in love with Anya, had just the right balance in his performance.  In contrast, Richard Pink's portrayal of Lopakhin, a peasant's son and now self-made and successful businessman, who ultimately betrays the family when he purchases the cherry orchard, was less convincing, partly due to the colour and modern cut of his lounge suit costume, which was out of place in this period piece, despite the addition of patterned waistcoat and lavish silk neck bow.

Sadly, none of the cast spoke with any hint of a Russian accent and there was a distinct London tone to Kerry Wheeler's dialogue as Dunyasha, the family's housemaid, although overall her debut performance with the company was very creditable.  Her scenes with Yasha, the lecherous young man-servant, played by another newcomer Andy Cope and Yepikhodov, the family's clumsy estate clerk, played by Nigel Sudworth, were well-acted and confident.

John Johnson-Cook had designed a pleasing set, depicting the old nursery overlooking the blossoming cherry orchard through a curtained central rear window.  This was then used as the backdrop for the drawing room adjoining the ballroom, with different props, drapes and screen. The scene in the grounds of the estate was depicted by the addition of a couple of garden structures with an artificial cherry tree rear centre stage.  Unfortunately, for the final scene in the nursery, the central window was missing, leaving the artificial cherry tree from the garden scene in full view.

The Cherry Orchard is a challenging, complex play and whilst the cast had obviously worked hard in preparing for this production, at times the performance lacked lustre and pace, not helped by closing the stage curtains between scene changes.  As some consolation, however, I must just mention the company's publicity poster and programme, designed by Reg Villan, which were, as always, attractively packaged and presented.

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