The Cherry Orchard
Apr. 22nd, 2004 09:45 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
magidTuesday I saw a production of Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard at Brandeis. I'm not a Chekhov fan (I've seen too many productions that felt heavy and pointless), but this worked pretty well.
The set was nicely done, with a wall of doors and windows midway back that could be opened onto the ever-present orchard behind. The props were changed by people dressed as household servants, which was a nice touch. The lighting was fine, as was the sound. The costumes, though, were outstanding, beautiful dresses for the main character, dresses to drool over in how they were cut just so. Gibson-girl-ish, and lovely.
The show moved along, with humor as well as stronger emotion. I still don't understand how upper class people with no money had so many hangers-on of indeterminate status with them, but I wonder whether the characters would fit better if I knew more about Russian society then. On the other hand, I have taken classes in Russian history, and there still seemed to be lots of superfluous-to-the-family people drifting in and out. Perhaps that is part of why I don't care for Chekhov's plays. Hm. Plus all the highfalutin talk about work without actually ever doing any. Many of his characters seem peculiarly unsuited to do anything at all. I mean, there are aristocrats in other plays, and while they are not doing jobs that earn money, they do things, whether it's administering the estate, or being a magistrate, or hunting, or whatever. Chekhov's main characters have nothing but a strange indolence, even in the face of financial ruin.
The set was nicely done, with a wall of doors and windows midway back that could be opened onto the ever-present orchard behind. The props were changed by people dressed as household servants, which was a nice touch. The lighting was fine, as was the sound. The costumes, though, were outstanding, beautiful dresses for the main character, dresses to drool over in how they were cut just so. Gibson-girl-ish, and lovely.
The show moved along, with humor as well as stronger emotion. I still don't understand how upper class people with no money had so many hangers-on of indeterminate status with them, but I wonder whether the characters would fit better if I knew more about Russian society then. On the other hand, I have taken classes in Russian history, and there still seemed to be lots of superfluous-to-the-family people drifting in and out. Perhaps that is part of why I don't care for Chekhov's plays. Hm. Plus all the highfalutin talk about work without actually ever doing any. Many of his characters seem peculiarly unsuited to do anything at all. I mean, there are aristocrats in other plays, and while they are not doing jobs that earn money, they do things, whether it's administering the estate, or being a magistrate, or hunting, or whatever. Chekhov's main characters have nothing but a strange indolence, even in the face of financial ruin.
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no subject
Date: 2004-04-22 07:39 am (UTC)Anyway, one of the last shows we did before I left was a set of re-envisionings of "The Cherry Orchard" that pared down the Russian societal aspects and tried to get at the emotional "meat" of his writing. Some of them were really enjoyable, both to watch and to perform.
He's definitely a writer of his time but occasionally I stumble across a bit of his writing that stays with me.
no subject
Date: 2004-04-22 07:52 am (UTC)A friend who's a director said that Chekhov has to be done so that there's all the sturm und drang stuff below, but you're busy enjoying the lighter banter up above. I'd only seen productions that had all the deeper stuff, but in that somewhat disjointed, manic sort of way. This production did a better balance.
Still, there are a lot more plays I find much more interesting, some of them perhaps obscure works of black-box theater.
sturm und drang?
Date: 2004-04-22 08:06 am (UTC)What does sturm and drang mean?
Re: sturm und drang?
Date: 2004-04-22 08:14 am (UTC)Also, a description of a type of literature, as described here. Chekhov isn't quite in this category (well, certainly not, if holding it to be only Germans :-), but I was using it in a more colloquial sense.
Re: sturm und drang?
Date: 2004-04-22 08:15 am (UTC)