The Cherry Orchard

Simon Stone, director du jour and recent controversy magnet, returns to heartening form with his fine production of The Cherry Orchard (although billing the play as ‘By Simon Stone, after Anton Chekhov’ is a little on the nose – this is a careful, faithful take on the masterful 1904 script, more of a translation than any sort of reboot). Armed with an exceptional cast, Stone gets to the heart of Chekhov’s dark comedy, linking identity with economic fortunes and exploring how changes in the latter can affect the former.

Pamela Rabe is outstanding as the matriarch Andreyevna, an ageing beauty freshly returned from Paris to witness the end of an era. The titular plantation on her family’s decaying estate is headed towards the chopping block, and she can’t quite bring herself to face the music and acknowledge her collusion in its demise. She is flanked by family, including her doddering brother Gayev (Robert Menzies) and daughter Anya (Eloise Mignon, whose performance is a triumph; Mignon is brilliant as the intelligent teenager, oscillating between astounding insight and frustrating self-centredness with ease).

Where this production doesn’t quite achieve perfection is in its exploration of its lovers. The knotted, unfulfilled romance between the hard-nosed Varya (Zahra Newman) and Lopahkin feels forced, in large part because Steve Mouzakis’s Lopahkin has been stripped of any vestige of romanticism. He is so utterly indifferent toward the pursuit of love that the pair’s eventual confrontation feels forced, something out of left field. The actors make the most of it, but it doesn’t feel believable in the context of their characters. In addition, Toby Truslove’s Trofimov, the high-horse-riding perennial student, is so one-note that it feels unnatural that the shining Arya would develop any interest in him. These characters are well-drawn as regards the change in their personal and familial economic fortunes; in their romantic endeavours, they feel less finely sketched.  

Still, Stone comes close to getting The Cherry Orchard completely right, and that should not be read as damning with faint praise. He, along with set and costume designer Alice Babidge, move the play out of its elaborate period setting and into an unspecified modern era, dotted with ‘70s touches that recall the demise of old money and the rise of a new, newly-moneyed class. (Mouzakis may not be convincing when playing Lopahkin as a lover, but as a gauche businessman, he nails it.) This production feels relevant and fresh – no small ask given the period specificity of the original text. The characters are neither heroes nor villains, and their petty desires are just that – theirs. They are neither right nor wrong in what they want, simply poorly equipped to deal with change. It’s something that we are, in general, all guilty of, at one time or another.

Rating: 4 stars out of 5

The Cherry Orchard

Melbourne Theatre Company

By Simon Stone, after Anton Chekhov

Director: Simon Stone

Set and Costume Designer: Alice Babidge

Lighting Designer: Niklas Pajanti

Composer and Sound Designer: Stefan Gregory

Cast: Gareth Davies, Ronald Falk, Robert Menzies, Eloise Mignon, Steve Mouzakis, Zahra Newman, Roger Oakley, David Paterson, Pamela Rabe, Nikki Shiels, Katherine Tonkin and Toby Truslove

The Sumner, Southbank Theatre, Melbourne

10 August – 25 September