Chekhov is one of the most popular authors for theatrical productions. During one season in Moscow, you can see several staged versions of the same play in different theaters.
Here are a few of them:
“The Cherry Orchard” on the stage of the Mossovet Theater.
Andrey Konchalovsky, director, seeks to free Chekhov from any heaviness, to give the effect of lightness.
The theme of lack of love or genuine love is redlined throughout the entire play in the production of Konchalovsky.
“The Cherry Orchard” on the stage of Lenkom Theater:
Marc Zakharov, the Director, already has no regrets about the orchard: it has already been long cut down to the last tree in his eyes. But “we must live”, as it is said in another Chekhov’s play. And the only thing that he can oppose to destruction and losses is the energy of his theater, his skill, which is filled with his very personal version of the “Cherry Orchard”.
“Three sisters” on the stage of FomenkoTheater:
Words are like living beings, and everyone wants to touch them with their own hands. Oh, How they speak! How these women breathe! The charm and mystery of Chekhov’s sisters, according to Fomenko’s version, is not because they know languages, not in their beauty, but in their talent to live. The talent in the freedom of their movements, in changing of their faces, in fluttering captivating intonations, their sensitivity to the world around, the ability to love, and vulnerability to rudeness.
Three sisters on the stage of Chekhov Moscow Theatre:
Modern interpretation, sort of experiment in the production of Konstantin Bogomolov.
The originality of this version of the Chekhov’s play presented by the Director is that the play does not win compassion. On the contrary, the sisters appear to us as empty and stupid, and the final words “and we will know why we live, why we suffer” do not evoke pity or compassion. Only Tuzenbach is alive here, his fullness is shown through the whole performance, and this environment is ruining him.
Uncle Vanya on the stage of Vakhtangov Theatre:
Do not be surprised if you come to the theater to see the play “Uncle Vanya”, but you do not recognize familiar characters, and famous words will sound unexpectedly. No, Rimas Tuminas, the Director, did not commit an act of vandalism, he did not rewrite the text, did not shorten it. He read it from the clean sheet of paper, as if not knowing that there were interpreters before him.
The Director put away the everyday routine, leaving the battlefield of passions, broken illusions, unfulfilled hopes.
