The Cherry Orchard

Overview

National Theatre Live performances are one of the best ways of taking in a dose of theatre, especially if isn’t part of your regular diet. Filmed onstage in London and broadcast to cinemas all over the world, you can be sure that these screenings will be lovingly directed and excellently acted.

With that in mind, you might enjoy Andrew Upton’s adaptation of Anton Chekhov’s classic, The Cherry Orchard. If you don’t know much about Chekhov other than that gun thing, here’s the low-down: it’s early 20th century Russia and there is more than a whiff of revolutionary feeling floating about. When Ranyevskaya (played by Zoe Wanamaker) returns to an easy moneyed life on her family’s orchard after ten years abroad, she manages to overlook the increasing instability of the status quo. After ignoring the entrepreneurial schemes of the peasant Lopakhin, she and her brother find themselves striving to hold on to the home they grew up in.

Directed by Howard Davies (who previously directed the Sydney Theatre Company’s performance of the same adaptation), this performance promises to be a poignant and tragically funny interpretation of Chekhov’s last play.

The Cherry Orchard will be released in Australian cinemas on July 23rd.