The Cherry Orchard
by Anton Chekov
Theater UCF, Orlando, Florida
Directed by Roberta Emerson
Starring Paige Mason, Alexis Camina, Olamide Oladeji and Colby Bell
Reviewed by Carl F. Gauze
Say what you will about the Russians, but they always have a gut-wrenching tragedy ready to destroy someone’s life. Take the Ranevsky family. They are about to lose their long-held family homestead, but cannot get off dead center and do something, anything, to save themselves.
The estate used to provide dried fruit to the military, but that contract is long gone, and now only the dying trees and the manse are left. Debts pile up and the nouveau riche Ranevsky hangs around, hoping to either marry into this property or pick up the estate at a fire-sale price. The matron of the house, Anya (Alexis Camina), hopes for an advantageous marriage, while everyone else drinks, borrows, or gambles away the bones of the estate. Soon enough, Ranevsky takes over the house, boots the family out, and drops the curtain.
Like all good Russian drama, the cast is large, the disaster inevitable, and salvation fixes nothing. We stand on a set made of more levels that a Russian doll, and nearly everyone looks back wistfully at the glories of their childhood. The only hope anyone has is capitalist, and even that severely downsizes the fading family fortune. The cast is varied and versatile. My favorite was Firs, the elderly and failing retainer. He is ready to lie down and die if it would help, but without him, the household will starve — no one here seems able to fry an egg. The major theme is reminiscing on a mythical past, a past no one can return to. The entire story is a deep longing for the lost glories of the past. It’s a bittersweet dream that can only wake to an icy cold winter.
Overall, this an excellent production of what I consider one of the more difficult plays in the modern repertoire. UCF has pulled off another large and challenging work, and left us all micro plot points to argue as we return to our own personal Floridian dachas.
