The Cherry Orchard

Anton Chekov — 2018

A fresh take on a classic by the Tony Award-winning playwright of The Humans "Mr. Karam's plays aren't tearful, but they are often about loss--of love, of health, of innocence--and the messy, haphazard, necessary ways we get on with our lives afterward... He specializes in painful comedies that really shouldn't be as funny as they are. Karam is a mature writer, very much in command of his gifts." --New York Times "Stephen Karam is among the very best of his generation of playwrights." --New York Magazine "The more you see Anton Chekhov's final play, the weirder it seems... The Cherry Orchard contains distinctly bizarre touches: unexplained offstage noises, ominous portents of revolution, and a morbid ending that's nearly Beckettian... Adapter Stephen Karam layers American accents (racial and immigration anxieties) into his lean, accessible script." --Time Out New York Stephen Karam is known for his dedication to exploring the idiosyncrasies of human speech and behavior--the subtleties, the depth, and the won�derfully awkward minutiae. With this new adaptation of The Cherry Orchard, Chekhov's canonical masterpiece about a family on the brink of bankruptcy, Karam's fluid style pairs harmoniously with the work of the master playwright. Stephen Karamis the author of two plays that were named finalists for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama: The Humans in 2016 and Sons of the Prophet in 2012. The Humans won the 2016 Tony Award for Best Play. His other work includes the play Speech & Debate and a film adaptation of Chekhov's The Seagull for Sony Pictures Classics.

Reviews

chris@chrispehh

Mar 31, 2025

chekhov the marxist (& that concludes his four great plays) — this one surprisingly absent gun

Anna Yada@annyone

Jan 18, 2023

Society on the verge of a big change and all the different people in it. 100 yeas go by and nothing really changes.

Ilse@ilse

Feb 8, 2022

This is the first play I ever read, though I wasn't expecting it to be one (that's on me though). It was an amazingly written story about chance, how it affects lives and the unpredictability of it all. The socio-economic forces that were behind this play were fascinating; the rise of the middle class, the decline of the aristocracy's power, and abolishment of serfdom (especially the amazing scene with Lopakhin and the quote (view spoiler)["I've bought the estate where my grandfather and my father were slaves, where they weren't even allowed into the kitchen" (hide spoiler)] was so powerful). Definitely something I'd recommend!

Анастасия Розова@rozova_n

Nov 18, 2021

*Read for class 2.5/5 I loved how it felt rushed in the end, it felt very much life like. But other than that... Another play from Chekhov I didn't enjoy much. It was just fine.

Dakota Gigout@brisbookbag

Aug 25, 2021

Beautiful, captivating, stirring, emotional, and funny...Chekhov gives everything he writes its own personality. We see character in every word and the emotion of a plot successfully carried throughout the entire work.