Chekhovs The Cherry Orchard

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Chekhovs The Cherry Orchard

• A Comedy in Four Acts?

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Anton Chekhov (1860-1904)
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Konstantin Stanislavski Method acting
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Production (Value added)
Author
Translator
Audience
Experience
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Body of Work

• Traditional themes of middle class melodrama
  (hopeless love, money, marriage, and who own the
  house)
• Melodramatic actions gradually moved off stage
• Directors POV-Stage directions wiggle room
• Actors POV-Under the mask
• Cherry Orchard's place within the body of work

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Recurring Themes

• Missed opportunities
• Disconnect between what characters say and what
  they do (reality?)
• Change, social order, deconstructing society
  without judgment
• Frustration and apathy (yawning)
• Use of pauses, beats, and sighs
• Doing nothing

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Setting the Stage

• Open with the cherry orchard in bloom (May)
• Lady of the house has been away for 5 years-why?
• The estate will be sold in 3 months-why?
• Close with the cherry orchard being destroyed
  (transformed?)

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Cherry Orchard Characters Russian names-given
name, last name and a middle name that
incorporates the fathers name. In formal
situations you say the entire name.

• Family
• Liubov Ranyevskaya-owner of estate, a loose
  woman?
• Anya-her daughter (17) rides in balloons in
  Paris-hope
• Varya-adopted daughter (24), carries the keys, no
  nonsense
• Leonid Gayev-Liubovs expressive brother
• Friends
• Yermolai Lopakhin-businessman
• Boris Semyonov-Pishchik-land owner, suddenly
  falling asleep, Think Grandpa Simpson
• Servants
• Semyon Yepikhodov-accountant (double trouble),
  Think Threes Company
• Petya Trofimov-perpetual graduate student
• Carlotta-governess, performer (ventriloquist,
  magician)
• Dunyasha-maid that doesnt know her place
• Firs-butler (87)-time
• Yasha-valet, mammas flunky, a good for nothing

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Comedic Form?

• Tragedy-downfall of the hero or person of
  stature, fall from grace, ending in death (Think
  Hamlet, Othello)
• Comedy-obstacle is overcome and main objective is
  eventually achieved, ends in a wedding or a feast
  (Think A Midsummer Nights Dream, Twelfth
  Night)
• The Cherry Orchard-a comedy in four acts in
  which the protagonist falls, there is no wedding
  or feast, and the objectives are not achieved

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Comedy

• Farce, Vaudeville, cheap laughs
• squeaky boots,
• dropping flowers,
• bumping into furniture (accountant),
• falling asleep while speaking (Pishchik),
• cracking someone over the head,
• use of repetition yellow ball in the side
  pocket!!
• Beyond the farcical (reference to text)

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For Future Discussions

• Chekhovs exploration of
• Social order and class distinctions
• Clash between generations
• Symbols
• The train (often late)
• The cherry orchard
• The house