"Stellar Cast Drives McCarter's Cherry Orchard"

The second highest grossing show in McCarter Theatre's history was the 1992 star-studded production of Anton Chekhov's "The Three Sisters," directed by Emily Mann.

Don't be surprised if Mann's new production of Chekhov's "The Cherry Orchard" doesn't beat it. It is startlingly fresh, captivating and wonderfully designed, boasting a brilliant 21-member ensemble cast that would be the envy of any regional theater. The barely 2 1/2-hour show whizzes by, punctuated often with humor, while at other times bringing the audience to tears.

Featuring Jane Alexander, Avery Brooks and John Glover, the play's 21-member cast has more film, stage and TV credits than you can shake a cherry tree branch at, ranging from Barbara Sukowa, who starred in several Werner Fassbinder films, to Rob Campbell, currently in the movie "Boys Don't Cry."

Perhaps the true star is Mann's contemporary adaptation that allows Chekhov -- not the translator's voice -- to be heard and includes a scene between two characters (former serf Firs played by Roger Robinson and governess Charlotta played by Sukowa) Mann said she didn't even know existed until she began her research. Apparently cut from the original Moscow Art Theatre production in 1904, it essentially was forgotten until Mann's intrepid research dug it up.

In the scene, which closes the first act, we learn about both characters' loneliness, their searches for identity and the meaning of life, plus their struggles to fit in. This struggle against dislocation -- a very contemporary idea -- pervades the nearly 100-year-old play.

Everyone from the young valet Yasha (Jefferson Mays), who longs to return to Paris and flee such a boring country as Russia, to estate owner Lyubov Ranevskaya (Alexander), who left Russia after her young son drowned only to return to find herself penniless and her estate up for auction, are restless souls.

Then there is Brooks as the businessman Lopakhin, who knows exactly where he wants to be but will find resistance all the way because society will not accept the son of a serf. He ends up owning the orchard and the estate house where his grandfather was not even allowed to enter the kitchen.

He plans to cut down the beloved and beautiful cherry trees and sell lots for the rising middle class to built summer vacation homes. He will make a great fortune, this uneducated but smart man, but what good does it do him, points out student and communist Petya (Campbell), who disdains material things.

Written as the playwright was dying and first staged in 1904, Chekhov's last work takes a hard look at the vanishing Russian gentility that was collapsing only four decades after the serfs were freed. This form of slavery is brought even closer to American audiences by the casting of black actors in the roles of former serfs and their descendants.

Chekhov does not pass judgment on his characters. Alexander's flighty character -- who refuses to take Lopakhin's advice to save her estate since it would mean the loss of her beloved orchard -- ends up losing it anyway. One the day of the auction, she gives a party she can not afford. She smiles through adversity -- until she actually hears the orchard is lost and cries for the first and only time.

Mann has found the right balance between the humor and the sadness. She is not above the occasional vaudeville moment, such as when the family if taking its final leave of the house but someone steps on the hat box squashing its contents.

Set design by Adrianne Lobel, costumes by Jennifer von Mayrhauser and lights by James F. Ingalls are superb.

The entire production is the sort of thing we should be seeing more of on Broadway, if only audiences would support it and producers would take the chance. Fortunately, regional theaters are now doing that kind of work and doing it very well.

Mann, now in her 10th year at McCarter, is one of the state's -- if not nation's leading theater artist -- and her production of "The Cherry Orchard" is another gem for New Jersey's arts treasure chest.

-Gretchen C. Van Benthuysen, Asbury Park Press
April 4, 2000

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