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    The Cherry Orchard
    The Cherry Orchard
    The Cherry Orchard
    Ebook72 pages1 hour

    The Cherry Orchard

    By Anton Chekhov

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    About this ebook

    "The Cherry Orchard", first performed and published in 1904, is one of Anton Chekhov´s famous plays and is also the last.

    Madame Ranevskaya, who has spent five years in Paris to escape grief over her young son’s death, returns to her home in Russia ridden with debt. She is obliged to decide how to dispose of her family’s estate, with its beautiful and famous cherry orchard. The coarse but wealthy merchant Ermolai Lopakhin suggests that Mme Ranevskaya develop the land on which the orchard sits. Eventually Lopakhin purchases the estate and proceeds with his plans for a housing development. As the unhappy Ranevskayas leave the estate...

    Interestingly enough, Anton Chekhov intended for "The Cherry Orchard" to be a comedy, but the director staged it as a tragedy. The subject matter of the play is heavy, but there are comical elements, especially in regards to Madame Ranevskaya's brother's addiction to billiards.

    Another interesting fact about the play is that it is the only play in which Anton Chekhov included a gun but never had the gun fired. You may have heard about Chekhov's gun, a dramatic principle which states that every single item put into a play or story should have relevance. Therefore, a playwright should never introduce a gun into a play if he doesn't intend for it to go off at some point. Filmmakers still adhere to the Chekhov's gun rule today, though Chekhov himself broke his own rule in "The Cherry Orchard".
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherE-BOOKARAMA
    Release dateSep 7, 2023
    ISBN9788835335023
    Author

    Anton Chekhov

    Anton Chekhov was born in 1860 in Southern Russia and moved to Moscow to study medicine. Whilst at university he sold short stories and sketches to magazines to raise money to support his family. His success and acclaim grew as both a writer of fiction and of plays whilst he continued to practice medicine. Ill health forced him to move from his country estate near Moscow to Yalta where he wrote some of his most famous work, and it was there that he married actress Olga Knipper. He died from tuberculosis in 1904.

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      Book preview

      The Cherry Orchard - Anton Chekhov

      Anton Chekhov

      The Cherry Orchard

      Table of contents

      THE CHERRY ORCHARD

      Characters

      Act One

      Act Two

      Act Three

      Act Four

      THE CHERRY ORCHARD

      Anton Chekhov

      Characters

      Lubov Andreyevna Ranevsky (Mme. Ranevsky), a landowner

      Anya, her daughter, aged seventeen

      Varya (Barbara), her adopted daughter, aged twenty-seven

      Leonid Andreyevitch Gaev, Mme. Ranevsky’s brother

      Ermolai Alexeyevitch Lopakhin, a merchant

      Peter Sergeyevitch Trofimov, a student

      Boris Borisovitch Simeonov-Pischin, a landowner

      Charlotta Ivanovna, a governess

      Simeon Panteleyevitch Epikhodov, a clerk

      Dunyasha (Avdotya Fedorovna), a maidservant

      Fiers, an old footman, aged eighty-seven

      Yasha, a young footman

      A Tramp

      A Station-Master

      Post-Office Clerk

      Guests

      A Servant

      The action takes place on Mme. Ranevsky’s estate

      Act One

      [ A room which is still called the nursery. One of the doors leads into Anya’s room. It is close on sunrise. It is May. The cherry-trees are in flower but it is chilly in the garden. There is an early frost. The windows of the room are shut. Dunyasha comes in with a candle, and Lopakhin with a book in his hand.]

      Lopakhin. The train’s arrived, thank God. What’s the time?

      Dunyasha. It will soon be two. [ Blows out candle] It is light already.

      Lopakhin. How much was the train late? Two hours at least. [ Yawns and stretches himself] I have made a rotten mess of it! I came here on purpose to meet them at the station, and then overslept myself . . . in my chair. It’s a pity. I wish you’d wakened me.

      Dunyasha. I thought you’d gone away. [ Listening] I think I hear them coming.

      Lopakhin. [ Listens] No. . . . They’ve got to collect their luggage and so on. . . . [ Pause] Lubov Andreyevna has been living abroad for five years; I don’t know what she’ll be like now. . . . She’s a good sort — an easy, simple person. I remember when I was a boy of fifteen, my father, who is dead — he used to keep a shop in the village here — hit me on the face with his fist, and my nose bled. . . . We had gone into the yard together for something or other, and he was a little drunk. Lubov Andreyevna, as I remember her now, was still young, and very thin, and she took me to the washstand here in this very room, the nursery. She said, Don’t cry, little man, it’ll be all right in time for your wedding. [ Pause] Little man. . . . My father was a peasant, it’s true, but here I am in a white waistcoat and yellow shoes . . . a pearl out of an oyster. I’m rich now, with lots of money, but just think about it and examine me, and you’ll find I’m still a peasant down to the marrow of my bones. [ Turns over the pages of his book] Here I’ve been reading this book, but I understood nothing. I read and fell asleep. [ Pause.]

      Dunyasha. The dogs didn’t sleep all night; they know that they’re coming.

      Lopakhin. What’s up with you, Dunyasha . . .?

      Dunyasha. My hands are shaking. I shall faint.

      Lopakhin. You’re too sensitive, Dunyasha. You dress just like a lady, and you do your hair like one too. You oughtn’t. You should know your place.

      Epikhodov. [ Enters with a bouquet. He wears a short jacket and brilliantly polished boots which squeak audibly. He drops the bouquet as he enters, then picks it up] The gardener sent these; says they’re to go into the dining-room. [ Gives the bouquet to Dunyasha.]

      Lopakhin. And you’ll bring me some kvass.

      Dunyasha. Very well. [ Exit.]

      Epikhodov. There’s a frost this morning — three degrees, and the cherry-trees are all in flower. I can’t approve of our climate. [ Sighs] I can’t. Our climate is indisposed to favour us even this once. And, Ermolai Alexeyevitch, allow me to say to you, in addition, that I bought myself some boots two days ago, and I beg to assure you that they squeak in a perfectly unbearable manner. What shall I put on them?

      Lopakhin. Go away. You bore me.

      Epikhodov. Some misfortune happens to me every day. But I don’t complain; I’m used to it, and I can smile. [ Dunyasha comes in and brings Lopakhin some kvass] I shall go. [ Knocks over a chair] There. . . . [ Triumphantly] There, you see, if I may use the word, what circumstances I am in, so to speak. It is even simply marvellous. [ Exit.]

      Dunyasha. I may confess to you, Ermolai Alexeyevitch, that Epikhodov has proposed to me.

      Lopakhin. Ah!

      Dunyasha. I don’t know what to do about it. He’s a nice young man, but every now and again, when he begins talking, you can’t understand a word he’s saying. I think I like him. He’s madly in love with me. He’s an unlucky man; every day something happens. We tease him about it. They call him Two-and-twenty troubles.

      Lopakhin. [ Listens] There they come, I think.

      Dunyasha. They’re coming! What’s the matter with me? I’m cold all over.

      Lopakhin. There they are, right enough. Let’s go and meet them. Will she know me? We haven’t seen each other for five years.

      Dunyasha. [ Excited] I shall faint in a minute. . . . Oh, I’m fainting!

      [ Two carriages are heard driving up to the house. Lopakhin and Dunyasha quickly go out. The stage is

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