Chekhov's masterpiece, about a Russian family losing its ancestral home, combines a lament for a vanishing past with a hopeful dream of the future. In the century since its first performance, The Cherry Orchard has undergone a wide range of conflicting interpretations: tragic and comic, naturalistic and symbolic, reactionary and radical. Beginning with the 1904 premiere at Stanislavsky's Moscow Art Theatre, this study traces the performance history of one of the landmark plays of the modern theatre. Considering the work of such directors as Anatoly Efros, Giorgio Strehler, Peter Brook, and Peter Stein, Chekhov: The Cherry Orchard explores the way different artists, periods and cultures have reinvented Chekhov's poignant comedy of failure and hope.
| ISBN: | 9780521825931 |
| Publication date: | 14th September 2006 |
| Author: | James N University of Texas, Austin Loehlin |
| Publisher: | Cambridge University Press |
| Format: | Hardback |
| Pagination: | 262 pages |
| Series: | Plays in Production |
| Genres: |
Theatre studies Literary studies: plays and playwrights Literary studies: c 1800 to c 1900 |