It is comforting that State Theatre Companies still include a few classics in their subscription seasons. It is great to see new, experimental works performed, especially by local writers, however it’s also exciting to see the production of a classic, to know this is a play worthy of our main stages.
I had earmarked the Sydney Theatre Company’s (STC) new production of Russian playwright Anton Chekhov’s ‘The Cherry Orchard’ for a long time. I have to declare my bias. ‘The Cherry Orchard’ sits very comfortably in my list of all time top ten plays. It is a supreme work.
The STC have given the production due weight. Artistic Director Robyn Nevin brought renowned UK director Matriarch Madame Ranevskaya and her family of romantic dreamers are locked into a lost past, and a time when fortune shone upon them.
The family are unable to face the reality of a heavy debt and have ignored the groundswell of political and social change taking place around them. They are facing the prospect of having to sell their ancestral home and their cherished cherry orchard which holds so many memories. The family cling to an absurd belief that that there will be a miraculous solution at the eleventh hour.
Peter Carroll plays the family’s old servant, Firs, John Gaden as Madame Ranyevskaya’s arrogant brother Gaev, Lucy Bell as the Madame’s adopted daughter, Varya, Dan Spielman as the opinionated young student Trofimov, Phillip Quast as Lopakhin, a merchant who is the bearer of bad news for the family,