The Cherry Orchard E-Book

Anton Chekhov

• Herausgeber: E-BOOKARAMA
• Kategorie: Poesie und Drama
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023

Beschreibung

"The Cherry Orchard", first performed and published in 1904, is one of Anton Chekhov´s famous plays and is also the last.

Madame Ranevskaya, who has spent five years in Paris to escape grief over her young son’s death, returns to her home in Russia ridden with debt. She is obliged to decide how to dispose of her family’s estate, with its beautiful and famous cherry orchard. The coarse but wealthy merchant Ermolai Lopakhin suggests that Mme Ranevskaya develop the land on which the orchard sits. Eventually Lopakhin purchases the estate and proceeds with his plans for a housing development. As the unhappy Ranevskayas leave the estate...

Interestingly enough, Anton Chekhov intended for "The Cherry Orchard" to be a comedy, but the director staged it as a tragedy. The subject matter of the play is heavy, but there are comical elements, especially in regards to Madame Ranevskaya's brother's addiction to billiards.

Another interesting fact about the play is that it is the only play in which Anton Chekhov included a gun but never had the gun fired. You may have heard about Chekhov's gun, a dramatic principle which states that every single item put into a play or story should have relevance. Therefore, a playwright should never introduce a gun into a play if he doesn't intend for it to go off at some point. Filmmakers still adhere to the Chekhov's gun rule today, though Chekhov himself broke his own rule in "The Cherry Orchard".

Leseprobe

Anton Chekhov

The Cherry Orchard

Table of contents

THE CHERRY ORCHARD

Characters

Act One

Act Two

Act Three

Act Four

THE CHERRY ORCHARD

Anton Chekhov

Characters

Lubov Andreyevna Ranevsky (Mme. Ranevsky), a landowner

Anya, her daughter, aged seventeen

Varya (Barbara), her adopted daughter, aged twenty-seven

Leonid Andreyevitch Gaev, Mme. Ranevsky’s brother

Ermolai Alexeyevitch Lopakhin, a merchant

Peter Sergeyevitch Trofimov, a student

Boris Borisovitch Simeonov-Pischin, a landowner

Charlotta Ivanovna, a governess

Simeon Panteleyevitch Epikhodov, a clerk

Dunyasha (Avdotya Fedorovna), a maidservant

Fiers, an old footman, aged eighty-seven

Yasha, a young footman

A Tramp

A Station-Master

Post-Office Clerk

Guests

A Servant

The action takes place on Mme. Ranevsky’s estate

Act One

[ A room which is still called the nursery. One of the doors leads into Anya’s room. It is close on sunrise. It is May. The cherry-trees are in flower but it is chilly in the garden. There is an early frost. The windows of the room are shut. Dunyasha comes in with a candle, and Lopakhin with a book in his hand.]

Lopakhin. The train’s arrived, thank God. What’s the time?

Dunyasha. It will soon be two. [ Blows out candle] It is light already.

Lopakhin. How much was the train late? Two hours at least. [ Yawns and stretches himself] I have made a rotten mess of it! I came here on purpose to meet them at the station, and then overslept myself . . . in my chair. It’s a pity. I wish you’d wakened me.

Dunyasha. I thought you’d gone away. [ Listening] I think I hear them coming.

Lopakhin. [ Listens] No. . . . They’ve got to collect their luggage and so on. . . . [ Pause] Lubov Andreyevna has been living abroad for five years; I don’t know what she’ll be like now. . . . She’s a good sort — an easy, simple person. I remember when I was a boy of fifteen, my father, who is dead — he used to keep a shop in the village here — hit me on the face with his fist, and my nose bled. . . . We had gone into the yard together for something or other, and he was a little drunk. Lubov Andreyevna, as I remember her now, was still young, and very thin, and she took me to the washstand here in this very room, the nursery. She said, “Don’t cry, little man, it’ll be all right in time for your wedding.” [ Pause] “Little man”. . . . My father was a peasant, it’s true, but here I am in a white waistcoat and yellow shoes . . . a pearl out of an oyster. I’m rich now, with lots of money, but just think about it and examine me, and you’ll find I’m still a peasant down to the marrow of my bones. [ Turns over the pages of his book] Here I’ve been reading this book, but I understood nothing. I read and fell asleep. [ Pause.]

Dunyasha. The dogs didn’t sleep all night; they know that they’re coming.

Lopakhin. What’s up with you, Dunyasha . . .?

Dunyasha. My hands are shaking. I shall faint.

Lopakhin. You’re too sensitive, Dunyasha. You dress just like a lady, and you do your hair like one too. You oughtn’t. You should know your place.

Epikhodov. [ Enters with a bouquet. He wears a short jacket and brilliantly polished boots which squeak audibly. He drops the bouquet as he enters, then picks it up] The gardener sent these; says they’re to go into the dining-room. [ Gives the bouquet to Dunyasha.]

Lopakhin. And you’ll bring me some kvass.

Dunyasha. Very well. [ Exit.]