The Cherry Orchard

by Anton Chekhov

Overview

Classic of world drama concerns the passing of the old semifeudal order in turn-of-the-century Russia, symbolized in the sale of the cherry orchard owned by Madame Ranevskaya. The work also showcases Chekhov's rich sensitivities as an observer of human nature. This inexpensive, high-quality edition, reprinted from a standard edition of the play, will provide theater students and any lover of great drama with a reliable text of this masterpiece.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9788835335023
Publisher:	E-BOOKARAMA
Publication date:	09/07/2023
Sold by:	StreetLib SRL
Format:	eBook
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Anton Chekhov (1860-1904) was a Russian doctor, short-story writer, and playwright. Born in the port city of Taganrog, Chekhov was the third child of Pavel, a grocer and devout Christian, and Yevgeniya, a natural storyteller. His father, a violent and arrogant man, abused his wife and children and would serve as the inspiration for many of the writer’s most tyrannical and hypocritical characters. Chekhov studied at the Greek School in Taganrog, where he learned Ancient Greek. In 1876, his father’s debts forced the family to relocate to Moscow, where they lived in poverty while Anton remained in Taganrog to settle their finances and finish his studies. During this time, he worked odd jobs while reading extensively and composing his first written works. He joined his family in Moscow in 1879, pursuing a medical degree while writing short stories for entertainment and to support his parents and siblings. In 1876, after finishing his degree and contracting tuberculosis, he began writing for St. Petersburg’s Novoye Vremya, a popular paper which helped him to launch his literary career and gain financial independence. A friend and colleague of Leo Tolstoy, Maxim Gorky, and Ivan Bunin, Chekhov is remembered today for his skillful observations of everyday Russian life, his deeply psychological character studies, and his mastery of language and the rhythms of conversation.

What People are Saying About This

James Parer

"Carnicke's Cherry Orchard is direct, easily accessible to young American students, and mercifully free of all that blather that mucks up so much of the other versions that I know." --(James Parker, Late Professor of Theatre, Virginia Commonwealth University)

Editorial Reviews

Jean-Claude van Itallie's adaptation is splendid, colloquial without being cute, simple, moving, funny.

Village Voice

I don't think I have ever seen anything quite like this production on a stage before—I left the Beaumont exhilarated.

NY Times

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

NY Post

"Senelick . . . has done his job as scholar and translator nearly to perfection."

Weekly Standard

Frayn's translation, which strikes me as splendidly lucid and alive…will be acted again and again” —New Statesman

From the Publisher

"Mr. Karam’s plays aren’t tearful, but they are often about loss—of love, of health, of innocence—and the messy, haphazard, necessary ways we get on with our lives afterward . . . He specializes in painful comedies that really shouldn’t be as funny as they are. Karam is a mature writer, very much in command of his gifts."

New York Times

"The more you see Anton Chekhov’s final play, the weirder it seems . . . The Cherry Orchard contains distinctly bizarre touches: unexplained offstage noises, ominous portents of revolution, and a morbid ending that's nearly Beckettian . . . Adapter Stephen Karam layers American accents (racial and immigration anxieties) into his lean, accessible script."

Time Out Magazine

"Stephen Karam is among the very best of his generation of playwrights."

New York Magazine