A new production of Anton Chekhov's "The Cherry Orchard" starring Diane Lane has opened on Broadway. NY1's Roma Torre filed the following review.
The great playwright Anton Chekhov wrote about the sorry state of Russia more than a century ago. And yet his works resonate today because he tapped into a universal human condition. Efforts to modernize Chekhov are always tempting but very tricky to pull off. Case in point, the Roundabout Theatre’s bizarre interpretation of that heart-rending masterwork “The Cherry Orchard”.
Where to begin. Playwright Stephen Karam, celebrated for his Tony winning play “The Humans", would seem to be the ideal translator of the angst and sorrow that’s befallen a declining family, but his adaptation, with director Simon Godwin, over-reaches and underestimates the subtle brilliance of Chekhov’s drama.
Their attempt to update the story of an aristocratic Russian household facing the loss of their beloved estate and cherry orchard essentially strips the play of its particular context. The sets and costumes are in some nebulous time period and the final act is in very modern dress. For the play to work we have to feel the characters’ attachment to home. Without that, they're reduced to frivolous people deservedly marching toward oblivion.
Chekhov’s characters may have outlived their usefulness, but we need to empathize with their plight. That's a very tall order for this cast given the contextual vacuum.
Though talented, they lack cohesion and it has nothing to do with the multi-racial casting. Diane Lane, in the lead role of Ranevskaya is lovely but overpowered by Harold Perrineau’s aggressive businessman Lopakhin. Everyone else comes off as just plain silly in this muddy mess of a production.
I don’t begrudge the effort to modernize Chekhov. It’s just that this vision failed to bear any fruit.