The Cherry Orchard
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The Cherry Orchard is Anton Chekhov's last play. It premiered at the Moscow Art Theatre in 1904, just months before the author's death, in a production directed by Konstantin Stanislavski.
Although the play is viewed by most as a tragicomedy, Chekhov called it a comedy and even claimed that it had many farcical elements.
Lyubov Ranevskaya returns to her Russian country house with her adopted daughter Varya, her 18-year old daughter Anya, and several other people. They stay there for close to a year. Ranevskaya, Varya, and Anya live there with Ranyevskaya's brother, Gayev, a maid, Dunyasha and there are several other people that stay and visit throughout the play.
Ranevskaya's main problem is the lack of money that is very troublesome for her. Throughout the play there are various solutions suggested to her, but she doesn't do anything. The orchard is consequently sold in an auction to Yermolay Alekseyevich Lopakhin, a man whose ancestors were serfs on the property. In the end, the orchard is chopped down by Lopakhin.
External links
- Full text of The Cherry Orchard in the original Russian (http://ilibrary.ru/text/472/)Template:Lit-stub