The Cherry Orchard
It must have been at least some consolation when a reluctant Anton Chekhov stepped on to the stage of the Moscow Art Theatre (formerly known as the Moscow Art Popular-Accessible until an increase in ticket prices resulted in the name change) to be greeted with a stupendous ovation for his play The Cherry Orchard. The professional medic, an outsider to Russia’s nineteenth century literary gentry, had established himself as an accomplished short story writer. Despite this, a piercingly thorny reception greeted his initial attempts as a playwright.
The first staging of Chekhov’s third play The Seagull October 1896, Alexandrinsky Theatre, St. Petersburg was a painfully miserable occasion, the audience merely hissed and giggled at inappropriate moments. The critics slammed him as an ignominious dramatist who lacked the capability to show rather than tell a story. In his play, and other first attempts, Chekhov had dispensed with the expected tropes of the Aristotelian plot: a clear beginning, middle and end with an emphasis on action over characterization. Instead, a Chekhov play prioritises ideas and characters over action and plot. In the beginning, owing to the disastrous premiere of The Seagull, Chekhov also viewed the abandonment of Aristotelian poetics as regrettable.
The night Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard was received with an ovation at the Moscow Art Theatre, 17 January 1904, the play had been directed by Konstantin Stanislavski. Chekhov’s feelings regarding the production were unequivocal. In a letter to his wife the actor Olga Knipper he wrote, ‘I can only say that Stanislavski ruined my play.’ As far as Chekhov was concerned The Cherry Orchard was unquestionably a comedy, but Stanislavski had staged the play as a tragedy. To this day it is clear, depending on whether The Cherry Orchard is presented as a tragedy set in a dilapidated country house or a farce with Commedia dell'arte standards of caricature, whose perspective is being revered.
[To be continued]