Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
LAura Wade’s revival of Anton Chekhov’s last play brings big names. Helen Hunt and the venerable matriarch Madame Ranyevskaya, Bill Pullman’s brother, and Kenneth Branagh (so soon after taking his leading role in the Royal Shakespeare production of The Tempest) their enemies, Lopakhin, the son of a shopkeeper here who takes control of the family estate and represents the rise of power against the old Russian ossified order.
But for such stars, the production of Tamara Harvey has no disappointments. You don’t feel that the story is blaming, its problems related to love and its terrible loss. The sound is very soft, almost pleasant, and the tone is designed in such a way that there is no magnet to hold you.
Wade’s new version, based on Helen Rappaport’s translation, seems less like a language reformer than a language reformer, familiar and unshakable in a Russia that has changed since the two royal brothers, Ranyevskaya and Gaev, speak American accents, while Lopakhin is the Irish servant Yasha (Julian) and Moore-Cook (Julian). The point about this pronunciation is not clear, and the whole production seems to be a woolen one.
The work was seen by Chekhov as a comedy with classical elements and Harvey brings out the humor in some places, while the old Firs (Michael Elwyn) is very good with his bad humor. This is not related to a lack of imagination and interest, although the story about Ranyevskaya’s adopted daughter, Varya (Esther Smith), and her desire to marry Lopakhin deepens the imagination.
As Branagh’s good-natured, sometimes dashing Prospero, his Lopakhin is acceptable, lacking the anger of Adeel Akhtar in Benedict Andrews’ wonderful version of the play at the Donmar Warehouse two years ago. When the anger of his group comes, after selling the property, after he reveals that he is the owner, it is time to build the night. But the drunkenness suddenly dissolves after this event, returning to a good silence.
Hunt seems as naive and effortless as the responsible, passionate and sad Ranyevskaya. He has no personality in the first scene and he exudes anxiety later on, as he feels the place is leaving him. Pullman, at least, brings charm and charisma, and you’d want his role to be less.
Anna Fleischle’s designs are full of faded beauty, with chandeliers and laces throughout the furniture. There is a voice cut in the bare branches folded around the room, which touch on the cherry orchard beyond. The sound design is simple and practical, with the loudest sounds of birds and the grinding sound of trees being felled.
Written in 1903, when the Russian authorities were on the verge of collapse, points about social discontent and the poor class are made, often through the play’s eternal and socialist student, Trofimov (Alfred Enoch plays him as a lovable prig rather than a straight fire). But they do not agree in any important way, either politically or aesthetically.
There is also a lot of stage presence and not enough speech. No one seems to feel the Chekhovian longueurs or the ennui – not on that side of the stage.
