The Stage

The Cherry Orchard

Published Friday 14 July 2006 at 13:50 by Barbara Lewis

The Cherry Orchard was first performed in 1904, just before Russia’s first revolution which attempted to establish a parliament.

A century later, after a second more radical revolution and decades of upheaval, Chekhov’s juxtaposition of personal misfortune and angst about the wider social destiny is as relevant as ever.

Undeterred by Southwark Playhouse’s small scale, director Kate Wild opts for a full cast in full costume, emphasising the fading grandeur, while the intimacy of the theatre space drives home the characters’ fallible humanity.

Wild’s well-acted and absorbing production also draws out the pathetic humour of a senile failure to grasp actuality.

Chief representative of the old order is the still elegant, still beautiful Ranevskaya. Played by Virginia Denham, she comes across as an upper middle-class eccentric, as much English as Russian, loveable, yet maddening.

Her would-be opposite is the earnest Trofimov (James Thorne), who thinks he has banished sentiment and embraced a socialist vision for the future but is equally naive.

Pragmatic money-making is embodied by Clive Moore as Lopakhin, the peasant turned land-owner, who stops short of a match with the bitter, edgy Varya (Debra Penny).

Their marriage would provide a trite, happy ending but would never resolve the wider social chaos.

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