The Arts in New York City
When I read the play, The Cherry Orchard, in Anton Chekov’s The Major Plays, I did not enjoy the play much at all. I could not see how it could ever be considered to be a comedy. To me, it depicted a tragic tale of people with dysfunctional relations that was by no means funny. There was too much death for it to be funny. So much people were crying for God’s sake! The characters were too somber, too dreadful, too miserable to ever be part of a comedy.
But when I watched The Cherry Orchard at the Classics Stage Company(CSC), my whole opinion of the Cherry Orchard changed dramatically. The CSC did not change the vibe of the play, but rather, it brought the play to life. Right then, the reason why The Cherry Orchard would be considered a comedy made a lot more sense than when I was reading the play. “Actions speak louder than words” could never be a more effective phrase than it is when it comes to plays, especially Chekov’s plays. Unlike plays by Shakespeare and Greek plays, the words in the play are not parallel to the way the actions are. Although the words spoken in the play are not particularly comedic to me, the actions in which the characters portray the words are. I especially enjoyed that the play was modernized but not really changed, since it was able to appeal to a more modern audience(a.k.a. us), without losing Chekov’s distinct style to the play.
I also enjoyed the fact that the play was more interactive with the audience than the other plays were. CSC, unlike huger buildings such as Carnegie Hall, the Met, BAM and the 92nd Street Y. In the other buildings, we had to sit at the back of the theater and we were barely even able to see the people’s faces, much less their emotions. CSC, on the other hand, was a tiny building, with probably less than 100 seats, thus causing me to be able to see the emotion the actors portrayed as their roles in the Cherry Orchard. This caused the play to be even more entertaining due to our string connection with the actors. This was the reason why, the Cherry Orchard performance, although being the last performance we watched, it was certainly not the least.
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I absolutely agree with everything you’ve said. When I read The Cherry Orchard, I thought that it was a piece of crap. I thought that it was too dreary and miserable. It didn’t really seem funny at all. But when I saw The Cherry Orchard performed at CSC, I realized that it wasn’t that bad after all. I didn’t really notice in reading the play how hysterical the old guy is. I mean, every time he walked onto the stage I just started laughing, even before he did anything funny. John Turturro really brought the play to life. All of the actors in the play were fantastic and delivered a great comedic performance. And it was a delight to actually see people’s faces and see everything that was going on for a change. Even though we did still have the worst seats in the house, since it was so small, they were only five or six rows back. Overall, I think this is one of the best performances that we went to this semester, second only to Don Giovanni.
I agree with you two, too. The mood and effect of a performance can change dramatically depending upon its interpretation and the manner in which it is performed. Trust me, I am expert. I have first hand experience with this phenomenon. Working on our film project I witnessed my group’s script, which rivaled, if not surpassed Checkhov, become the most humorous film shown. This reminds me, also, of one of our class discussions on Don Giovanni – whether we saw the opera as a tragedy or a comedy. Many of us said tragedy at first, but similarly to this performance, changed to comedy after seeing it.
Although I agree with you that while reading it the play is a tragedy and in performance it is a comedy, I don’t think the elements of tragedy have completely disappeared. At times, I felt like the tragedy was even more apparent than the comedy in The Cherry Orchard. To me, the jokes and laughter were only there to keep the characters and the audience from sinking into a depressive slump and to raise our spirits high so that when everything goes wrong, the drama is that much greater. As the play moved along the comedy got darker and darker until the last scene, when Fiers lays down on the bench almost had me in tears.
I agree with everything you said. When I was reading the Cherry Orchard, I found it boring and depressing. However, watching the performance I thought it was extremely funny and light hearted. I have to say it was probably on the level of the best performance we went to this semester. I have never seen a play where the actors interact with the audience. I will never forget the lady with the cucumber. Whoever thought of that was a genius. I also agree that the small space allowed me to feel connected with the actors. I also agree that the actors used normal day language. It made the play applicable to all types of people. I would love to attend similar performances in the future.