by Anton Chekhov
Friday October 13 – Sunday October 15, 2006
Venue: The House
Time: 8pm
One of the most famous and acclaimed plays of all time; The Cherry Orchard was Anton Chekhov’s last play, first performed shortly before his death in 1904. It describes the collapse of an aristocratic family, whose way of life is destroyed by forces they don’t understand and are powerless to resist – forces of social and political change that would soon sweep away the old order in its entirety. The combination of Chekhov, the playwright, and Stanislavski, the pioneering director and creator of the first truly modern school of acting, who directed the original production, make it a play of unique importance in the history of theatre. It was his encounter with Chekhov’s plays that gave Stanislavski the conviction that a new type of actor was called for and this eventually gave birth to the famous ‘System’.
in situ: applies its unique approach to Chekhov’s masterpiece. The Cherry Orchard Projecttakes place in The House, the action happening simultaneously in different rooms, corridors, landings and other spaces. The idea is that the audience moves around The House following whatever parts of the action they wish and piecing together their own unique experience of the work out of these encounters. The different acts take place in different spaces: on an impossibly cramped sofa, on a bed, on the stairs. Meanwhile, elsewhere, the characters are chatting, playing cards, drinking, singing, re-enacting the turning points in their lives and weeping over lost happiness.