THE CHERRY ORCHARD. To 7 April.

Sheffield

THE CHERRY ORCHARD
by Anton Chekhov a version by Pam Gems from a translation by Tania Alexander

Crucible Theatre To 7 April 2007
Tuee-Sat 7.30pm Mat 7 April 2.30pm
Runs 2hr 30min One interval

TICKETS: 0114 249 6000
www.sheffieldstheatre.co.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 5 April

Fresh-minted, sharp and clear, taking nothing for granted: an outstanding production.
Jonathan Miller’s production stands out even among British Theatre’s forest of fine Cherry Orchards. Light and spacious (designer Isabella Bywater turns the Crucible stage into a huge rectangle) it gives room to all Chekhov’s characters.

Though the theatre’s used Joanna Lumley’s drawing-power (with near sellout success) in its publicity, neither production nor curtain-call is a star-vehicle. This isn’t a collection of individual traumas but, utterly Chekhovian, a world where space is often echoed by silence, where words go unheard or unheeded and where life goes on. It’s amazing how happy these people often are.

Lumley’s Ranevskaya and Peter Eyre’s Gaev become emotional centres without creating defined moments; each drifts unlearning through life, he with weary resignation, she in emotional disorder, neither quite awake to modern realities.

So, once the orchard’s sold (to give away virtually the entire plot), life continues. Ranevskaya sets off abroad again; she’s been loving the orchard’s historic beauty in absentia. Only two people are really distressed. One is young Varya, for a different reason. The other is Charlotta, the German governess. The person least rooted in the estate, she’s left with neither home nor job.

Ex-peasant tycoon Lopahkin says he’ll find her something in the kind of casual comment these people make about each others’ troubles. Tom Mannion’s earlier made Lopakhin’s references to Ranevskaya’s family having owned his serf ancestors stand-out. Now his little celebratory dance at buying the estate seems a necessary physical release for the pent-up energy at something he finds as unbelievable as others do the orchard’s loss.

But alone with Varya he’s unable to speak the proposal that would bring them happiness. Starting in opposite corners of the immense room and coming physically closer, they stay apart in their inability to admit their feelings, creating intensity through a pattern of interrupted silences and inconsequential talk about the weather.

Lisa Dillon has prepared for this moment through Varya’s increasing irritation and impatient anxiety as news of the orchard’s fate is awaited. Her throwing down the household-keys becomes part of an emotional process Dillon and Miller chart with precision in this scrupulous, exemplary production.

Firs: Timothy Bateson
Station Master/Passerby: Robert Calvert
Dunyasha: Debbie Chazen
Varya: Lisa Dillon
Gaev: Peter Eyre
Pishchik: Roger Hammond
Madame Ranevskaya: Joanna Lumley
Lopakhin: Tom Mannion
Trofimov: Tobias Menzies
Yasha: Robin Pearce
Charlotta: Carolyn Pickles
Yepichodov: Hugh Sachs
Anya: Annabel Scholey

Director: Jonathan Miller
Designer: Isabella Bywater
Lighting: Tim Mitcherll
Sound/Composer: Adam Cork
Assistant director: Allison Troup-Jensen

2007-04-06 12:24:21