The Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekhov, adapted by Andrew Upton.
Somewhere in the distance, an axe strikes a tree. It is a sound that ends one world and begins another – and nobody who hears it will ever be the same. As Lopahin surveys the orchard he has just bought and the ruins of the family he once loved, his memories flood back one last time – the laughter, the arguments, the dancing, the desperate hope that something would turn up. Chekhov’s final and most devastating comedy asks a question that still reverberates today: what do we owe the past, and what does the future cost us?
Anton Chekhov (1860-1904) was one of the great masters of the short story, whose plays The Seagull, Uncle Vanya, Three Sisters, and The Cherry Orchard transformed modern theatre. His work found its home at the Moscow Art Theatre, where director Konstantin Stanislavski staged the first productions of his major plays. The two had a famously complicated partnership: Stanislavski’s emotionally weighty interpretations moved audiences, but Chekhov felt they overlooked the humour in his writing, and he insisted that The Cherry Orchard was a comedy. It premiered on the 17th January (Stanislavski’s Birthday) in 1904, and Chekhov died of tuberculosis six months later.
Andrew Upton (Australian playwright, screenwriter, and translator), served as co-artistic director of the Sydney Theatre Company from 2008 to 2013, alongside Cate Blanchett, where he became known for fresh, boldly contemporary adaptations of the classics. Upton’s adaptation of The Cherry Orchard strips away the stiffness often associated with English translations of Chekhov, finding the humour, speed, and raw feeling in the dialogue.
Tring Park School for the Performing Arts is licensed to present Anton Chekhov’s ‘The Cherry Orchard’ (in a version by Andrew Upton) by arrangement with United Agents.
DIRECTED BY: Tim Crowther
COURSE: Acting Course (Sixth Form)
DURATION: Approx. 2 hours, 10 minutes (plus an interval)
AGE RESTRICTION: 12+
Content warnings: this show uses haze smoke and strobe lighting effects.
