This document provides background information on Anton Chekhov's play The Cherry Orchard. It includes summaries of the plot, historical context, characters, and themes. It also discusses Chekhov's life and writing style, as well as the influence of the Moscow Art Theatre and Konstantin Stanislavsky's acting methods on bringing realism to the Russian stage. The document analyzes key scenes and characters in depth to understand Chekhov's dramatic techniques.

1. Bryanne Lotter
Julia Matyas
Jenny Robbins
by Anton Chekhov Josh Sanchez
Mike Weil
and Molly Weston

2. Historical Setting:
Before 1850
• Romanticism and Melodrama
• Age of Revelations
• Reason replaced by imagination
• Expressive Poetry
• Bold use of Individualism
• Good and Evil in Stock Characters
• Happy Ending

3. Historical Setting:
After 1850
• Realism
• Conscious Movement
• World War I (1914-1918)
• Russia in a Time of Crisis!
• Essence rather than appearance
• Rejected idealistic philosophy

4. Anton Pavlovich Chekhov
• Born Janurary 17, 1860
• Short story writer, playwright
and physician
• His paternal grandfather was
a serf who bought freedom
for himself and his family
• His father was a merchant
who overextended finances
and estate and fled with the
rest of family to Moscow to
escape prison; Chekhov
followed 3 years later
• Died in 1904: Tuberculosis

5. • Graduated from
Moscow University
School of Medicine;
soon gave up practice
to dedicate time to
writing
• “Medicine is my lawful
wife and literature is
my mistress”
• Published comic
sketches, parodies and
dialogues

6. Writing Styles
• Focused on character, social class and
setting while maintaining authorial
objectivity
• Minimized importance of traditional
dramatic climaxes by reducing their
impact
• Drama of understatement and nuance

7. Themes of The Cherry Orchard
• Memory: source of burden or happiness?
• Modern vs. Traditional Russia
• Emergence of realism

8. Plot *
• LiubóvRanyévskaya and Ánya return to
family’s estate after 5 years in Paris
• Liubóv is thrilled to be home while
Ánya reveals to sister Várya the poverty
her mom lived in while in Paris and
their mom’s frivolous spending
– Várya reveals that estate will be sold in
August to pay for debts
– Ánya reveals that mother’s departure
was to escape memory of the deaths of
father and son
• Friend and former peasant turned
businessman Lopákhin suggests way to
save estate:
– Building summer cottages for the
growing number of vacationers
• Liubóv and brother dismiss idea: attached
to Cherry trees
* denotes Dramatic Form

9. • Lopákhin offers again
his idea to help
support the
transformation of the
Orchard to vacation
homes
– Liubóv would rather be
sold with the orchard
– Revealed how Liubóv
throws money away
• Student Trofímov sees
Orchard as symbol of
past oppression

10. • On the day of the
auction Liubóv and her
family throw a party
• Liubóv fears the worst
because all her plans
fell through
• Lopákhin returns and
announces he bought
the Orchard and will
carry through with his
plans

11. • Cherry Trees are
being cut down and
the family leaves the
estate
• Ánya worries that the
old and ill butler Firs
hasn’t been taken to
the hospital
– Firs is accidently left
behind and locked
inside the house
• He dies to the sound
of cherry trees being
cut down

12. The Moscow Art Theatre and
Realism in Russia
• As realism continued to spread throughout European
countries, Russia had to await its “independent
theatre” before more reforms could take place.
• Russian dramatists Turgenev, Ostrovsky, and Pisemsky
had put together a realistic school of writing but
small changes were made until the Moscow Art
Theatre was founded by Konstantin Stanislavsky
(1863-1938) and Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko
(1858-1943).
• The Moscow Art Theatre was unlike any other
independent theatre; it was focused on the
presentation of plays and it being a fully professional
organization.

13. Konstantin Stanislavsky:
The Style of Acting *
• Stanislavsky is best known for his work in the approach of
acting. He gave careful and close attention to detail in
acting. He made an outline of his ideas in 1909.
• His ideas were not published until 1942, when he wrote My
Life in Art. Most of his writings were not known outside of
Russia until Building a Character (1949) and Creating a Role
(1961). The English-language nor the Russian-language
versions of his works were reliable due to the fact that the
USSR did not have rights to the Copyright Agreement when
the works were published. Elizabeth Reynolds Hapgood
controlled the international rights and were copyrighted
under her name.
• Through Hapgood and Soviet collaborations, accurate and
correct translations of his writings began to surface.
* denotes Dramatic Form

14. • The main outlines of Stanislavsky’s books were written out:
– The actor’s body and voice should be trained so they may
respond efficiently to all demands.
– Actors should be schooled in stage techniques so they can
project characterization to an audience without any sense of
contrivance.
– Actors should be skilled observers of reality as a basis for
building a role.
– Actors should seek inner justification for everything done on
stage.
– If actors are not merely to play themselves, they must make a
thorough analysis of the script and work within the “given
circumstances” found there.
– On stage, actors must focus attention upon the action as it
unfolds moment by moment.
– Actors must continually strive to perfect understanding and
proficiency.
• The books were meant to analyze an actor’s work and to
continue building on education and various methods.
Stanislavsky was never fully satisfied with his system and
continued to refine it till the day he died.

15. Characters of
The Cherry Orchard *
• LiubóvRanyévskaya – The owner of the estate and the cherry orchard. She
represents love and expresses it to many of the characters. She is deeply
disconnected from her status as an aristocrat. Liubóv’s character is defined by
flight, both physical and emotional. She flees frequently from her location,
which is paralleled by emotional flight from present to the past.
• Lopákhin – is the business man of the estate and the son of the peasants who
died on the estate under Liubóv’s control. He has offered to help Liubóv pay
her debts by selling the cherry orchard. He ends up buying the cherry orchard
himself. Lopákhin is the character who is constantly in charge of driving the
play forward; he is its source of energy and action.
• Gáyev – He is Liubóv’s brother and Uncle to Ánya and Várya. He is the odd
uncle and has the habit of speaking during the wrong time and talking about
odd and absurd things, serving as a comedic foil to the plot.
• Várya - The adopted daughter of Liubóv. The estate and the cherry orchard
mean the most to her since it is her job as manager. She also likes Lopákhin.
She is the one character that seems to feel the emotional weight of everything
around her. Her character portrays the tragic version of the performance,
rather than comedic.
• Ánya – She is the youngest and biological daughter to Liubóv. She plays into and
represents the idealism spoken by Trofímov. She becomes very close with
Trofímov and serves as a foil character to him.
* denotes Dramatic Form

16. • Píshchik – He is landowner and has financial difficulties as well in dealing with
them. He is certain he will find the necessary capital he needs to pay off his
debts. He represents a caricature throughout the play; he never stops talking.
• Trofímov – He is the "eternal student,” and provides most of the explicit
ideological discussion in the play. Trofímov makes the play's social allegory
explicit. He idealizes work, as well as the search for truth, decrying the poor
living conditions in which most Russian peasants live, as well as the "Russian
intellectuals" whose inactivity he deems responsible for these conditions. His
idealism and intellectualism make him a foil for the practical, materialistic
Lopákhin, but he also serves as a foil for Liubóv.
• Firs – He is the very old manservant. He represents and talks about the estates
past and how things use to be. He is the only link to the past and spends his
time throughout the play mumbling memories of the cherry orchard. His views
are thought to have represented Chekov’s perspective.
• Yephikódov – He is the clerk at the estate, he is the funny character of the play
providing comic relief throughout the play. He has a love interest in Dunyásha
and has made an attempt to propose to her.
• Yásha – He is the young servant of the estate. He likes Dunyásha and makes
advances on her throughout the play. He uses the love she shows to him with
physical pleasure.
• Dunyásha – She is the young maid of the estate and is wanted by Yephikódov
but has more of a connection to Yásha.

17. ACT SCENE
Josh as Trofímov
Mike as Lopákhin
pg. 378
lines 25-80

18. Diction *
• In the scene, Lopákhin and Trofímov’s dialogue don’t
always match up, especially in the beginning.
– This is characteristic of Chekov’s “farce” because the
people are wrapped up in their own lives and interject
serious conversation with personal, abstract statements.
• Lopákhin, the stereotypical serf who earned his own
money, cannot understand why Trofímov doesn’t
want to take his money. To him, success and
happiness coincided with earning money.
• Trofímov ends this scene on an optimistic note,
saying how he will help the progession of humanity.
– Another comedic interjection is made when Lopákhin
mocks Trofímov by asking if he thinks his presence is
actually necessary or even noticed.
* denotes Dramatic Form

19. Poetry *
• Tragedy vs. Comedy?
– The plot is tragic when viewed from the
Ranyévskaya family’s perspective.
– The dynamics between the characters is why
Chekhov considered it a comedy.
* denotes Dramatic Form

20. Spectacle *
• The play first opened on January 17, 1904
(also the year of Chekhov’s death):
• Play was performed at the Moscow Art
Theatre
• Directed by Constantin Stanislavski
• Stanislavski’s version was a tragedy
– Chekhov hated this version because he had
intended for it to be a comedy
– Said that Stanislavski ruined his play
• Chekhov’s wife, Olga Knipper played
Madame Ranevskaya
* denotes Dramatic Form

21. Recent Versions
• In 1934, one of the first English versions
of the play was performed at the Sadler’s
Wells Theatre in London
• A version of the play was televised in
1959 as a part of a special television
series called Play of the Week
• In 1977 the play opened in Lincoln Center
in New York City featuring Irene Worth,
Raul Julia, and Meryl Streep

22. Reception by Society
• Called one of the most talented
writers of his generation
• Won the Pushkin Prize for his
collection of stories In the
Twilight
• The premiere of his play The
Seagull in 1896 was received so
negatively that he fled the
theater and vowed to never
write another play
• United with Director
Stanislavsky and revived The
Seagull and wrote one of his
most famous plays: The Cherry
Orchard