CHEKHOV’S classic The Cherry Orchard marks the opening of the new season at Leamington’s Loft Theatre.
The first production in the fully refurbished main house runs from September 20 to 30.
Set in pre-revolutionary Russia, it tells the story of a group of people hopelessly incapable of dealing with reality.
After five years of lavish living in France, Madame Ranyevskaya is obliged to return home. Her heavily mortgaged estate is bankrupt and in order to meet its debts the family house and its famous cherry orchard must be sold.
But Madame Ranyevskaya and her extended family find this an absurd idea and cannot accept that the world is changing.
Rejecting a suggestion from nouveau riche Lopahkin that the cherry orchard be levelled and redeveloped as a holiday resort, the family decide to leave it to Gayev, Madame Ranyevskaya’s brother, to find other ways of raising the money.
Director William Wilkinson said: “The world was moving on and in 1904, when the play is set, was like a cauldron waiting to boil over”, says.
“But this play is no political tract. Chekhov shrewdly chose to tell his story of a fading world as a comedy – a comedy with an astonishing understanding of humanity – and it has stood the test of time.”
Visit www.loft-theatre.co.uk for tickets and performance details.
