Photo by Ken Jacques
Oh, those Russians. Especially those turn-of-the-20th century ones, when the population was twittering between royalty, intellectuals, servants and slaves, and political systems to match. Oh, and women, a whole other category.
Chekhov’s last play, “The Cherry Orchard,” onstage through April 2 at North Coast Repertory Theatre, illustrates such a society, with characters demonstrating grief, envy, ambition and other human characteristics along the way.
The title refers to a piece of property that includes a real cherry orchard. The land, owned for years by Madame Lyubov Ranevskaya (Katie MacNichol), has fallen on hard times and is about to be put up for sale by the merchant Lopakhin (Richard Baird). Mme. Lyubov’s 17-year-old daughter Anya (Riley Osburn), meanwhile, has taken a liking to an “eternal student” named Trofimov (Michael Raver), an easy-to-identify left-winger whose ideas are antithetical to the authoritarian Czarist autocracy.
Mme. Ranevskaya has another, adopted daughter named Varya (Amanda Evans), who at 24 is at least efficient and keeps the place going.
Lyubov’s brother Leonid Gayev (Bruce Turk) talks a lot (mostly about billiards). He symbolizes the aristocracy’s decadent life of leisure. He wants to save the estate, but lacks the drive or the know-how to do so.
In the lower classes are Dunyasha, a chambermaid. She is pursued by the clumsy clerk Yepikhodov (Jackson Goldberg), but she is in love with the servant Yasha (Michael Louis Cusimano), the best-looking of the bunch, who represents the new Russian generation.
Then there’s the governess Charlotta Ivanovna (Sofia Jean Gomez), a sort of circus entertainer raised by Germans, who does card tricks and ventriloquism at parties.
And Firs (James Sutorius), an aged manservant, whose 87-year-old senility is a source of both amusement and poignancy.
Director David Ellenstein keeps the lengthy play moving nicely, and he gets very able assistance from every one of the cast members. Richard Baird, playing the merchant trying to broker the deal Lopakhin, is especially worth watching.
Kudos also to set designer Marty Burnett, whose pieces can be moved and changed easily, costumer Elisa Benzoni (whose dresses for the women are delicious), Matt Novotny, whose lighting is lovely and Evan Eason, whose sometimes spooky sound design adds interest.
Chekhov tries to cover too much political and social territory in one piece for my comfort, but Ellenstein and company provide a fine showcase for it.
The details
“The Cherry Orchard” plays through April 2, 2023 at North Coast Repertory Theatre, 987 Lomas Santa Fe Drive in Solana Beach.
Shows Wednesday at 7 p.m.; Thursday through Saturday at 8 p.m.; matinees Saturday and Sunday at 2 p.m. A performance has been added at 2 pm. Wednesday, March 22.
Tickets: northcoastrep.org or (858) 481-1055
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