The Cherry Orchard

While those plays several years ago seemed at times bloated with historical import and long-windedness, however, the play at hand this time provides director Sam Mendes (who was not involved with The Coast of Utopia) with the opportunity to present a richly acted, well-designed production while maintaining a sense of intimacy and economy of craft that's just right for Chekhov's tragicomic take on real estate and family in turn-of-the-century Russia. In a reverent new version by Stoppard, the play feels a fresh as its titular cherry blossoms, full of light and undercut by daubs of shadow.

As the play begins, Ranevskaya and her brother Gaev are returning to Russia from Paris, where they've spent the last five years with Ranevskaya's daughter Anya and ailing lover. Her adopted daughter Varya and the merchant Lophakin are waiting for her with news that the family's cherry orchard will be sold if they can't come up with enough money to save it, a dilemma for which Lophakin presents an easy fix that Ranevskaya can't quite wrap her head around. The play, which Chekhov considered a comedy, nevertheless possesses a darker political undercurrent, highlighted by the servant character of Firs, who was freed from serfdom only to continue to follow his master, Ranevskaya's grandfather.

The production is certeinly helped by the fact that Mendes has assembled a first-rate ensemble hailing from both shores of the Atlantic, each individual personality contributing to the success of the whole. The best of the pack are Simon Russell Beale and Sinéad Cusack as haughty Lophakin and oblivious, vulnerable Ranevskaya respectively, though Richard Easton, Rebecca Hall, and particularly Ethan Hawke, whose performance as perpetual student Trofimov is a departure from his self-indulgent role in Coast of Utopia, acquit themselves with finesse as well.

Mendes's stylish, fluid direction and crisp, elegant set and costume designs from Anthony Ward and Catherine Zuber also bring a sense of lushness and elegance to the proceedings, the stage covered in opulant Persian rugs and cluttered with wooden chairs. Squares of light (Paul Pyant is lighting designer) help to structure the scenes and propel the action forward.

Using little stage magic but ample amounts of subtletly and acting talent, those involved with the Bridge Project's inaugural production at BAM set the mark high for future productions from Mendes and this top-flight company of actors. The Winter's Tale is in the wings, premiering February 10, but my fondness for this production will likely remain rooted in my memory long beyond that date.

share Tweet