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Stars explained: * A production of no real merit
with failings in all areas. ** A production showing evidence of not
enough time or effort, or even talent, and which never breathes any real
life into the piece – or a show lumbered with a terrible script. *** A
good enjoyable show which might have some small flaws but has largely
achieved what it set out to do.**** An excellent show which shows a
great deal of work and stage craft with no noticeable or major
flaws.***** A four star show which has found that extra bit of magic
which lifts theatre to another plane. |
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Orchard produces impressive fruit
Jean Wilde as Madame Lyubov Andreievna Ravensky and James Weetman as the rich merchant from a lowly background, Liubov Andreievna Lopakhin The Cherry Orchard Hall Green Little Theatre **** ANTON Chekov's final play is not the
easiest for any company, particularly an amateur one. For a start it has a cast of 15 characters plus
various guests and spear carriers to make up the party numbers, giving a
total of 23 in HGLT's case. Finding 12 actors to take on speaking roles is
not the easiest for an amateur production either – cost is an added
problem for professionals – but HGLT managed it in some style which
shows the strength and depth of this excellent company; then there are
the names with Anya and Charlotte the only ones Western ears would
recognise leaving the rest as what sound like the remnants of throat
clearing. Next it has the baggage it has carried since it
was first performed in 1904. Chekov wrote it as a comedy, light hearted
Russian humour (the Russians do have a somewhat darker sense of humour
that we do) but Constantin Stanislavski the director of the first
production in Moscow, decided it was a tragedy – a carry on property
developer farce with social satire thrown in became a slash your wrist
fest overnight. So for more than a century directors and
audiences have been unsure about whether to laugh or cry or both. The basic tale is simple, Madame Liubov
Andreievna Ranevskaya – see what I mean about the names – owns an estate
with a beautiful cherry orchard but spends money and gives it away like
it is going out of fashion so is heading towards bankruptcy and has to
sell up the old family abode. Meanwhile ex-serf made good Yermolai Alexeievitch
Lopakhin tries to persuade Liubov to develop the estate for villas,
which she refuses to do on the basis that something would turn up.
When the fateful day arrives for the sale any
lingering hopes the auction would be cancelled are dispelled and the
truth dawns on old Liubov and her family as they are turfed out of the
ancestral pile. All rib tickling stuff – in a Russian sort of
way. Hall Green stalwart Jean Wilde gives us a
convincing performance as the flaky Russiam matriarch Liubov, unable to
make up her mind about selling or developing, while James Weetman
is an ideal foil as the rough and ready Yermolai Alexeievitch Lopakhin,
the self made man with not so much a chip as a whole sack of King
Edwards on his shoulder. He strides through the production in his leather
boots flashing his wealth and humble origins as badges of pride, a
little like a pre-revolutionary Russian Boysie from Only Fools and
Horses. Michael Nile also shows up well as the
ineffectual, perpetually broke estate owner Boris Borisovich
Simeonov-Pishchik whose life is a mix of fanciful money making ideas,
inability to pay bills and requests for loans while Liubov's brother,
Leonid Andreieveitch Gayev, is played with ineffectual style by Jon
Richardson.
Leonid is an eccentric, which is aristocratis
speak for nutter. He is trying hard in his own bumbling way to save the
estate but has no idea of how to do it, is doing nothing about it but
talk, and talk and talk . . . and copes with any sort of stress by
a collection of odd references to billiard shots – billiards being an
obsession of his. Then we have the perpetual student Peter Trofimov
played impressively by 17-year-old Dan Beaton, with his wispy beard and
dressed a little like a model for an army surplus store – revolutionary
uniforms never change.
He perhaps lacked the impassioned, revolutionary
zeal Chekov had envisaged as a symbol of Russian history in the making
back in 1904 but showed real promise. In Checkov's comedy, which was also a parody,
Peter, who was in love with daughter Anya, was the symbol of the left
wing unrest that was growing against the repressive autocracy under the
Tsar, with the aristocrats shown as ineffectual, hedonists living a life
of leisure on borrowed time and money. The play was performed a year
before the failed Russian revolution of 1905, remember, seen as the
beginning of what was to change the world in 1917. Amy Leadbeter impresses as the maid Dunyasha, who
in 1904 must have been a wakeup to Russian audiences as a maid who acted
like one of the family, almost an equal rather than a lowly servant. She
is in love with Yasha, a young manservant, played by Matt Ludlam. She In turn is loved by the clumsy, nervous,
lovelorn clerk Yepikhodov played with a nice touch of humour, squeaky
boots and tuneless guitar playing by Sami Moghraby. There were strong performances too from Rachel
Pickard as Anya and Lucy Poulson as adopted daughter (we never know what
she was adopted) Varya while Jaz Davison gave us a rather fun eccentric
governess as Charlotte Ivanovna.
And in the background we had the faithful, old
(very) family retainer Firs, played by David Hirst, an anachronism from
the days of serfdom clinging to the old ways like a limpet as the tide
turned for ever. At times the production lacked a little pace and
never quite managed that sustained natural rhythm that carries all
gently along before it, but this was opening night and there is time for
that to develop. I was not sure about the set by director Roy
Palmer, which looked a little like a whitewashed vault in some gothic
cathedral. A white, stepped roof and white curtained walls was pretty
well it along with a bookcase and a few chairs. All you could establish from the set, or at least
the actors, was that we, the audience were sitting in the cherry
orchard. We are told we are in the nursery for act one but after that you are on your own guessing if we are in the grounds, the garden or wherever. The bookcase, for example, is laid on its front and looks to all intents and purposes as a bed, particularly when Dunyasha and Yasha, who may or may not be about to become lovers, are sitting on it but, presumably it is supposed to be representing a seat in the grounds. Along with names that never become familiar it is
all a little confusing and does not help Roy Palmer's otherwise
controlled direction which manages to keep the threads of Chekov's
social comments separated as they run through the play and keeps
everyone firmly on track towards the inevitable sad conclusion in what
is an interesting production. To 26-05-12. Roger Clarke The production is
dedicated to another HGLT stalwart Mel Hulme who was to have been
in the play but fell ill during rehearsals. Mel, actor, director, set
builder and designer and anything else that was needed, was badgering
his old friend Roy Palmer for information on how the play was going from
his hospital bed. Mel died on May 10, a week and a day before the
production opened. |
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