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People’s Light and Theater presents “The Cherry Orchard”

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People’s Light and Theater presents The Cherry Orchard, by Anton Chekhov. The play was the last written by Chekhov before his death in 1907.

Cherry-Ochard-1The Cherry Orchard focuses on a woman of the Russian aristocracy, Lyubov Andreyevna Ranevskaya, who has returned to her family’s estate with her daughter and step-daughter after five years abroad. Instead of returning to the comforts of home, she returns to an estate in dire financial straights. Presented with several solutions to save the house, including chopping down the cherry orchard on the property to build rental homes, Lyubov ultimately does nothing and loses the house. As The Cherry Orchard progresses, we learn all the details about Lubyov and the surrounding cast of characters, which expands far beyond Lubyov and her daughters — the real reason Lubyov ran away to Paris for so long, the real reason she returned, and what has taken place at her estate in her absence. After deciding against three other solutions, the estate is finally put up for auction to pay off the mortgage, and characters “reveal memories and dreams of love, loss, beliefs, and uncertainty that reverberate in this time of palpable transition,” according to peopleslight.org.

Set during a revolutionary period in Russian history, when the aristocracy disintegrated,  serfdom was abolished and a new middle-class came into Cherry-Orchard-2prominence, Chekhov’s final piece “combines insightful socio-cultural farce with gripping human pathos,” according to theater critic Debra Miller, who wrote a review for phindie.com, The Cherry Orchard is a masterpiece put to life by Academy Award Nominees, Mary McDonnell and David Strathairn, Barrymore Award Winner, Pete Pryor, and a cast full of superb actors.

The Cherry Orchard runs 2 hours and 30 minutes with a 15-minute intermission. Showtimes vary.