BWW Reviews: Lit Moon Successfully Scales the Everest of THE CHERRY ORCHARD

The Cherry Orchard is, according to Anton Chekhov, a comedy in four acts. This specific note from the playwright regarding the intention of his work is emblazoned beneath the title of every translation of the play I've ever seen. Whether the director of the production finds these instructions challenging, an ironic joke, or simply an explanation of tone, they are the very first words in a play full of complexities and contradictions. The Cherry Orchard chronicles the last summer that the upper-class Ranyevskaya family, now fallen from privilege, spends at their ancestral estate in the Russian countryside, a sprawling property featuring a very large cherry orchard. Comedic moments in the play are available for accentuation, but it's impossible to ignore the emphasis on themes of nostalgia, loss, and the ineffectualness of the aristocracy. This grim undercurrent injects a dark quality into the play's humor. Stanislavski, who directed the play's debut in Russia over a century ago, went against Chekhov's intentions and presented The Cherry Orchard as a tragedy. There is legitimacy in both interpretations: The Cherry Orchard does offer a pleasant, romanticized version of the Ranyevskayas' summer at the estate before it is sold at auction to pay their debts, but that sentimental nostalgia carries with it the inescapability of the family's impotent yearning for a time before that debt was incurred and a sense of unfaltering befuddlement as to what happens when the property is sold.

John Blondell's production of The Cherry Orchard, performed by Lit Moon at the Porter theatre at Westmont, takes full advantage of the play's comedic moments. This play is a balancing act between the excited anticipation of discovery and the ennui of lost identity; Blondell and his cast deftly counterweight humor with an authentic sense of frustration from characters who are unable to find the inspiration to take action to salvage their lifestyle and property. Lit Moon's production stands solid on the fulcrum between comedy and tragedy.

Written in the early years of the 20th Century, The Cherry Orchard is theatrical commentary on the social evolution of Russia at the time. The ineffectual attempts of the Russian aristocracy, represented by the Ranyevskaya family, to maintain their status is played against the working class of freed serfs navigating their new potential for material wealth and positions of power. While in another type of play the news of their estate's impending sale might incite action towards saving the orchard, Chekhov's characters spend the summer discussing the problem rather than making an actual effort to solve it. The tension increases with each act and the summer passes without resolution, despite the insistence of Yermolai, a self-made businessman and descendent of the serfs who worked the cherry orchard, to split the property, demolish the orchard, and sell plots of land for vacation homes.

Blondell offers a show that is very capably acted, with a particularly impressive performance from Mitchell Thomas as Yermolai. Thomas conveys perturbation with the Ranyevskayas' impotency that builds from patient to annoyed, and finally boils over. As the only character with the ability and motivation to resolve the situation, Yermolai purchases the cherry orchard at auction. His resulting admission to the Ranyevskayas of his newfound ownership is both tormented and self-glorified. Thomas effectively presents the simultaneous gratification and horror of his actions; he embodies both savior and villain.

Blondell's production begins as a view into the pleasant memories of a former family home and morphs slowly, deliberately, into bittersweet dissolution without delving too deeply into the truly tragic potential of the story. The family accepts their loss, though not without melancholy, and they point their view to the future. The pacing of the show slows toward the end when the driving emotional force focuses on individual characters' nostalgic musings; while a certain amount of wistfulness can be charming, the non-committal nature of the characters throughout the rest of the play makes this final show of sentimentality seem disproportionally weighted. However, as the actors shut off the lights and sweep the bark shavings that cover the stage floor into piles in preparation for the family's final exodus from the house that is no longer theirs, it is clear that the tone the play is ultimately uplifting. Lit Moon's production is an elegant rendition of The Cherry Orchard, a play that Blondell likened to climbing a directorial mountain. Lit Moon successfully scales the Everest of The Cherry Orchard and summits the peak having genuinely represented both the light and dark sides of Chekhov's comedy.

For more from Lit Moon, see Hamlet at Center Stage Friday, September 12th and Saturday, September 13th.
http://www.centerstagetheater.org

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