The Cherry Orchard: A Comedy in Four Acts

by Julius West (Translator), Anton Chekhov

Overview

The Cherry Orchard was the last play written by Russian writer and playwright Anton Chekhov. It was first performed on January 17, 1904 at the Moscow Art Theater in a production directed by Constantin Stanislavsky. Chekhov characterized this piece as a comedy with some elements of farce; however Stanislavsky insisted on directing the play as a tragedy. Since this initial production directors had to deal with the dual nature of the piece.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781511991124
Publisher:	CreateSpace Publishing
Publication date:	05/02/2015
Pages:	68
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 9.02(h) x 0.14(d)

About the Author

Anton Pavlovich Chekhov was a Russian physician, dramaturge and author who is considered to be among the greatest writers of short stories in history. His career as a dramatist produced four classics and his best short stories are held in high esteem by writers and critics. Chekhov practised as a medical doctor throughout most of his literary career: "Medicine is my lawful wife", he once said, "and literature is my mistress."

Chekhov renounced the theatre after the disastrous reception of The Seagull in 1896, but the play was revived to acclaim in 1898 by Constantin Stanislavski's Moscow Art Theatre, which subsequently also produced Chekhov's Uncle Vanya and premiered his last two plays, Three Sisters and The Cherry Orchard. These four works present a challenge to the acting ensemble as well as to audiences, because in place of conventional action Chekhov offers a "theatre of mood" and a "submerged life in the text."

Chekhov had at first written stories only for financial gain, but as his artistic ambition grew, he made formal innovations which have influenced the evolution of the modern short story. His originality consists in an early use of the stream-of-consciousness technique, later adopted by James Joyce and other modernists, combined with a disavowal of the moral finality of traditional story structure. He made no apologies for the difficulties this posed to readers, insisting that the role of an artist was to ask questions, not to answer them.

Editorial Reviews

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

NY Post

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

NY Times

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

Village Voice

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

New Statesman

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

From the Publisher