The Cherry Orchard
Heidi Helen Davis and Ellen Geer revitalize Anton Chekhov’s dark comedy, reset and richly adapted during the epoch of the civil-rights movement on an old plantation in Virginia. The 300 acres of the cherry orchard are still there, more keenly felt in the forested amphitheatre. And the beloved characters--reintroduced with modern monikers--are mirthful and pathetic as their Russian predecessors in this contemporary retelling set in a time teetering on the brink of change.
Davis thoughtfully directs this lovely masterpiece in the naturalistic style Chekhov so revered. With a brilliant, verisimilitude cast at her fingertips, Davis transposes from the pre-Bolshevik era to the old, southern mentality with sensitive, astonishing clarity and timely realism.
Returning from France to her inherited estate, Lillian Randolph Cunningham (Ellen Geer) and her young daughter Anna (Willow Geer) discover their heavily mortgaged home is set for auction. As the cherry orchard blooms in what will be its final season, Lillian, deals with her own personal demons, grief for her drowned son, and rejection from her sponging lover with an overly generous attitude for the less fortunate to the risk of her own financial ruin.
Amidst all this, her counselors do not fair much better with reality and reasonable expectations. Her brother, Gates Randolph (William Dennis Hunt) an incessant prattler of nonsense chides his sister while ignoring crucial details. The only one who sees opportunity from all the grim despair is self-made landowner Lawrence Poole (Steve Matt) a family friend whose generational ties to the plantation are through his slave-owned grandparents. It is his plan and insistent urgings that the famous orchard, recognized “in the Encyclopedia” get divided into lots for summer homes and businesses, an idea abhorrent to Lillian’s sentimental sensibilities.
Velina Cunningham (Tippi Thomas), Lillian’s adopted daughter and self-appointed headmistress of the household vehemently opposes the selling out of the Randolph estate, while quietly nursing her own bitter disillusionment with Poole, who refuses to propose to her.
In an ironic twist of fate, an exuberant Poole buys the orchard and the evicted Randolph’s quietly leave to the sound of a gnawing chainsaw in the background. The only one left behind is loyal maid Fred Jasper (Rowena Johnson) resistant to change, left alone in the empty house with only memories of the way things used to be.
The traditional values of the past clash against the hope for a brave, new future in this apt context of the early seventies, finding parallels with our own difficult times under the banner of change. With the foreignness of the Russian names and political climate revamped, the production is more easily digestible and accessible for newer audiences. For purists, this adaptation is a carefully reconstructed study that enhances without distraction or unnecessary alterations.
Every cast member of this dream-team ensemble delivers the goods, and then some. The innovative script brings about equally original and delightfully new aspects to each of the characters, so that it feels as if we’re watching this classic for the first time. Ellen Geer positively simmers as Lillian, with echoes of a Tennessee Williams’ heroine flirting with disaster. Marc Ewing’s intense passion heats all the way to the back row. Tippi Thomas and Melora Marshall are mesmerizing, especially Tippi’s final scene and Marshall bewitches with lovely singing and instrumentals during splendidly blue-washed scene changes.
The incomparable talents of an affable Hunt effectively support this exquisite cast, including an empathetic Fassler matched by Van Winkle’s bad boy charm and Hoffman’s perfect timing. Willow Geer is the epitome of femininity and perseverance, in keeping with the times. Steve Matt is show stopping in Act II when he explodes with pride and undercurrents of revenge for his ancestors on buying the plantation. Rowena Johnson is the string of this show, and when that string breaks, so too our hearts with Johnson’s lone figure, reclining at last.
Unlike, traditional productions of “The Cherry Orchard” this one deserves a standing ovation. Taking the challenge of transposing the text to fit the times is an awesome task, and Davis and Geer outdo themselves with this inspiring, envisioned adaptation. For those new to the play and for those who’ve seen it before, this is one not to miss.
“The Cherry Orchard”
Runs through Sept 26
Fri and Sat at 8pm
Saturdays at 4pm
Sundays at 7:30pm
Theatricum Botanicum
1419 N. Topanga Canyon Blvd.
Topanga, CA 90290
PH: 310-455-3723