If you are looking for a meaty play hat you can really get into then make your way across to Chippendale’s Chippen Street Theatre.
At the heart of this play is human beings great difficulty in dealing with vast, weeping change An aristocratic family struggles to deal with the realisation that their best times are past and that the beloved estate, including the cherished cherry orchard, has to be sold.
The young people are the best people to cope with the sweeping changes. Student Peter Trofimov, with his fierce intellec,t is best positioned to deal with changes but his opinions are largely ignored by the family.
Victor Kalka’s production is a good one with lost of modern touches including the use of popular songs to complement the action. The play features Martin Bell, Garreth Cruikshank, Dominique de Marco, Zacharie di Ferdinando, Benjamin Tarlinton, Suzann James, Craig James, Laurel McGowan, Alannah Robertson, Martin Quinn, Caitlin Williams, and Harley Wilson.
Kalka’s creative team of costume designer Jake Parker and sound designer Ryan Devlin do well.
THE CHERRY ORCHARD features one of the saddest endings in all of drama. Everyone has reluctantly left the estate. Into the living enters the family long standing servant Firs who realises that he has been forgotten. With no means to leave the estate he will stay there till he dies.
As Firs fate is sealed we hear the inexorable sounds of the chopping down of the cherry orchard.
Recommended, Virginia Plain’s production of THE CHERRY ORCHARD is playing until Saturday 15th June 2019 at the Chippen Street Theatre located at 45 Chippen Street, Chippendale, NSW.
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Production photography by Clare Hawley