The house in Nottingham Playhouse’s revival of The Cherry Orchard, directed by outgoing artistic director Giles Croft, looks barely habitable. The tired old trappings of samovars and people staring into the middle distance looking very, very glum have given way to new Chekhovian conventions: the current one is peeling wallpaper. As Raymond Williams once observed of Chekhov’s characters: “It is the sensibility of a generation which sits up all night talking about the need for revolution, and is then too tired next morning to do anything at all, even about its own immediate problems.” In the age of social media, that sounds familiar. He knows he must change he just has no idea how to go about it. Vanya too clings to the past, beguiled by the image of the man he thinks he might have been rather than facing up to the relic he has become. Sitcom-ish … Nick Holder as Vanya and Jason Merrells as Astrov in Uncle Vanya at Home, Manchester. It felt very much like Owen, but no less like Chekhov. Productions such as Benedict Andrews’ Three Sisters at the Young Vic and Sean Holmes’ recent staging of Simon Stephens’ version of The Seagull at the Lyric Hammersmith have been revelatory.Īt Cardiff’s Sherman theatre, in one of the best productions of the year so far, Gary Owen and Rachel O’ Riordan transplanted The Cherry Orchard from a Russia trembling on the brink of revolution to Pembrokeshire in 1982 as Thatcherism ushered in an era of social change, the effects of which are still being felt today. Audiences might seem pre-programmed to kick and scream against these reimaginings of the classics, but the plays prove remarkably robust.

Chekhov’s plays have increasingly been stripped of the birch trees and given an invigorating, contemporary edge.

But its long-term influence on a subsequent generation of theatremakers staging Chekhov has been clear to see – and welcome. At the time, the production was vilified by some for its European influences and precisely articulated naturalism, and for releasing the play from the 19th century. I t’s over a decade since Katie Mitchell’s groundbreaking production of Martin Crimp’s version of The Seagull at the National Theatre.

Uncle vanya and the cherry orchard