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THE CHERRY ORCHARD
by Anton Chekhov aadapted by Bart Lee.

Blackeyed Theatre Tour to 28 March 2009.
Runs: 2hr 15min One interval.
Review: Alan Geary 17 March at Palace Theatre Mansfield.

Published on Reviews Gate

A very free adaptation which works well in its own terms.

Don’t go to this expecting straight Chekhov. It’s a very free adaptation which brings the servants more to the fore than they are in the original and incorporates a lot of musical numbers. Moreover it’s done by only four performers.

Acting is mostly excellent. Paul Taylor is genuinely moving as Lyuba, living in nostalgia and grieving for a child who drowned, though, hunched over and wearing a giant grey wig, he’s a bit coarse as faithful old retainer Yepikhodov. Likewise Gabrielle Meadows: she’s splendid in the parts of upstairs Anya and downstairs Dunyasha, but is grotesquely over-acting when it comes to Simeonov-Pischik.

The music - it’s of the music hall type, sometimes with a touch of the Weills - and the comedy, the best of which comes from the servants, are highly entertaining. They also add a sinister, edgy element to the play. At the end, when the family are leaving the estate, Lyuba’s tragedy is actually highlighted by the fact that every time Yepikhodov (Tom Neill) takes a step his shoe squeaks. There’s black humour too when the latter bungles a suicide attempt.

This Blackeyed Theatre production, directed by Bart Lee, who also did the adaptation, works very well in its own terms - it wouldn’t matter if you’d never heard of Chekhov. And it offers fresh insights into a classic work at the same time as retaining the original theme that the old order is being superseded by the new. But it’s not a substitute for unadulterated Chekhov.