The Cherry Orchard
Вишнёвый сад
- Author
- Anton Chekhov
- Year
- 1904
- Country
- Russia
- Copyright
- First staged 1904, the year Chekhov died. The original is public domain; translation rights vary, so no excerpt is shown.
A ruined landowning family cannot decide anything as debt threatens their cherry orchard, until a former serf's son buys it and cuts the trees down.
Why it is a classic
The model of a play where nothing happens and everything changes. The big event (the auction) happens offstage; on stage people talk past each other. The textbook for subtext and ensemble dialogue.
Structure breakdown
- 01Act 1 · Homecoming
A May dawn; Madame Ranevskaya returns from Paris. The merchant Lopakhin proposes cutting the orchard into summer lots; nobody listens.
- 02Act 2 · The field
At sunset in a field everyone talks only of themselves. A distant sound of a breaking string. Lopakhin warns again; the talk scatters.
- 03Act 3 · The ball
On the auction day the house holds a ball. Lopakhin returns and announces he bought the orchard, the land where his grandfather was a serf.
- 04Act 4 · Departure
October; the family disperses. Axes begin to fall. The old servant Firs is left behind in the locked house.
What to steal for your own script
- Keep the biggest event offstage and fill the stage with people avoiding it.
- Characters speak to themselves, not to each other. The mismatch is both the comedy and the tragedy.
- Mark the structure with one repeated sound, the breaking string, the axe.
Original excerpt
No excerpt is shown because translation rights may apply. Read the original at the archives below.