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The Cherry Orchard
Playwright - Anton Chekhov
Director - Gerry Mulgrew
Set & Costume Designer - Laura Hopkins
Lighting Designer - Paul Sorley
Music Composer and Arranger - Alan Tall
Company - Benchtours Their website
Venues & Dates - Toured in UK in 2002.
Run Time - 2hrs with 15 interval
Reviewer - Thelma Good
Blossoms as Chekhov intended
This Cherry Orchard blossoms as Chekhov intended. Gerry Mulgrew has taken
Chekhov at his word, this production is indeed "a four-act vaudeville.......cheerful
and hilarious". You may never have seen Checkov's last play in this
light, but Benchtour's production is a highly convincing take on what
has been treated as a nearly tragic play with comic interludes, by other
well known directors such as Peter Stein. Mulgrew and his marvellous actors
go for the grotesquely over the top style and we are rewarded by a play
which feels very modern, foreshadowing Ionesco and Beckett, indeed the
Theatre of the Absurd.
Madame Ranyevskaya and her entourage return to her and her brother's estate
and cherry orchard,
laden with debts. A successful local man Lopakhin suggests a leasehold
scheme for summer cottages to get money back in the coffers and remove
the ancient orchard, Madame though can't quite grasp the nettle of change
and drifts all summer till things becomes enviable. Making this play as
Chekhov's first audiences probably saw it makes it much more disturbing
in its essence while we laugh uproariously at all the characters not just
usual suspects. All of the cast are strong and individual in their roles,
together they combine to make the production zing - there is always something
to see and enjoy.
The production is also beautifully served by its designers and Alan Tall's
music. Paul Sorely's lighting creates shadows with their tracery of overgrown
cherry branches and often suffuses the set in a soft blossom pink. The
set by Laura Hopkins is versatile with pairs of moveable archways, half
glazed arched doors and revolving flats which reflect, expanding the stage.
The music even involves the whole cast at the opening of the second half
when they appear as the Jewish Band which other productions leave off
stage.
Fascinatingly in this production, liberated from classical gloom, all
sentimental nostalgia for the past lies to ensnare every character's possibilities
for change. I recommend it highly for its perception, presenting the play
so its tragedy is in our laughter - for we today are as foolish as its
characters. Touring to other parts of the UK as well as in Scotland, Benchtours
and Gerry Mulgrew's Cherry Orchard could become the benchmark for the
new century for this ultimately timeless play set in a world which is
always changing. I urge you to see it, it cuts down the overgrown, misshapen
productions before it.
And they are doing their excellent production of Chehkov's The
Bear and The Proposal at this year's Edinburgh Fringe at the Brunton
- another don't miss.
© Thelma Good 19 June 2002
Review of Benchtours 2002 production which is touring in Spring 2004 of
Checkov's The Bear
and The Proposal.
Benchtours will be touring Ibsen's Peer Gynt in May and June 2004.
Tour
dates for Benchtours The Cherry Orchard
Preview18 June at 7.30pm Glasgow Tron Theatre 0141 552 4267
19 - 22 June at 7.30pm Glasgow Tron Theatre 0141 552 4267
25 June at 7.30pm Dunfermline Carnegie Hall 01383 314 000
28 & 29 June at 7.30pm Musselburgh nr Edinburgh Brunton Theatre 0131 665
2240
2 & 3 July at 8pm Inverness Eden Court Theatre 01463 234 234
5 July at 7.45pm & 6 July at 2.30pm and 7.45pm Edinburgh Royal Lyceum
Theatre 0131 248 4848
9 & 10 July at 7.30pm Bangor Theatr Gwynedd 01248 351 707
12 & 13 July at 8pm Kendal Brewery Arts Centre 01539 725 133
24 - 26 July at 7.45pm Dundee Dundee Rep 01382 223 530
and 27 July at 2.30pm and 7.45pm Dundee Dundee Rep 01382 223 530
Tour ends there
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