National Theatre Broadcasts THE CHERRY ORCHARD At Town Hall Theater

Anton Chekhov, who practiced as a doctor for much of his literary career, confessed in a letter to a friend, "Medicine is my lawful wife, and literature is my mistress." The fruits of that illicit relationship are on display at Middlebury's Town Hall Theater when London's famed National Theater broadcasts Chekhov's final play, The Cherry Orchard.

The tragicomic Cherry Orchard comes to the Town Hall Theater on Thursday, June 30 at 7:00 pm. Howard Davies, "Britain's most consistently satisfying interpreter of Russian drama" (London Evening Standard), directs this brand-new adaptation by Andrew Upton.

Set at the start of the twentieth century, The Cherry Orchard captures a poignant moment in Russia's history as the country rolls inexorably towards revolution. Ranyevskaya (Zoë Wanamaker) returns more or less bankrupt after ten years abroad. Luxuriating in her fading moneyed world and unaware of the increasingly hostile forces outside, she snubs the lucrative scheme of Lopakhin (Conleth Hill), a peasant turned entrepreneur, to save the family estate. In so doing, the family puts their lives up for auction and seals the fate of the beloved orchard.

Metro London calls the production "funny and affecting ... with an excellent cast, who capture the wild exuberance and piercing melancholy of Chekhov's play." The Daily Telegraph writes that The Cherry Orchard is "wonderfully fresh, funny and deeply felt."

The Cherry Orchard will be broadcast on Thursday, June 30 at 7pm. Tickets are $17 and may be purchased at www.townhalltheater.org, (802) 382-9222, at the THT Box Office (Mon-Sat, noon-5pm), or at the door, if available.

 

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