The Cherry Orchard at The Young Vic

I expected great things from Simon Stephen’s new version of Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard at The Young Vic and I’m sorry to say that I was bitterly disappointed.

Set in modern times, this paired down version (it last two hours with no interval) directed by Katie Mitchell, left me in no doubt that here less is definitely not more.  I felt no connection with what was happening on stage and thereby totally uninvolved.  I’ve seen the play several times, so know the plot and that Chekhov was railing against mass deforestation.  Also in previous productions, the irony and humour has come through.  But not here and my companion, who was new to play, needed to go home and actually read a full length version to gain any sense of the why’s and wherefores. 

Chekhov’s main character, Madam Ranevskaya returns to her childhood home after five year’s absence and discovers that all is definitely not well.  Her affairs have been so badly managed that, not only does her beloved cherry orchard have to go, but also the house that goes with it.  Her only choice is to return to exile in France, but, being in denial, it takes her most of the play to come to terms with this turn of events.

One usually feels for the poor woman but here I just wanted her and her retinue to up sticks and leave as soon as possible.  The largely miscast, Kate Duchene is partly to blame, spending far too much time clattering around on the bare wooden floorboard when she isn’t weeping and wailing about her drowned son.  Nothing about her performance is subtle and, like the majority of the cast, so much of her speeches are lost because Katie Mitchell has a thing about making her actors talk upstage with their backs to the audience.  Realism?  Possibly but what’s the point if the audience can’t hear what they’re saying.  Certain actors can accomplish this, but unfortunately not many of these are appearing on the Young Vic’s stage this time around.  Another strange stage direction is to make the majority of the cast enter and exit down stage at what is almost a run.  The floor of the set is bare floorboards, so this results in much clomping and not much subtlety.  Talking of lack of subtlety the governess played by Sarah Malin has it in spades.

There are one or two good performances.  Dominic Rowan makes a believable, Lopakhin, the son of a serf who is the eventual purchaser of the estate, whilst Gawn Grainger is a touching and understated Firs.  In fact he really is the only likeable character and the only one to elicit any sympathy. Paul Hilton as Peter Trofimov is an excellent actor and delivers an amusing performance, as the clumsy perpetual student but, unfortunately, the majority of his funny lines are muffled and inaudible.

The lighting is irritatingly dim, the atmosphere is always depressing and the sounds suggest something spooky in the wood shed.  Chekhov’s lightness of touch is gone, along with the felled trees.

The Play That Goes Wrong at The Duchess Theatre

The clue as to the content of the latest production at The Duchess Theatre is in the title.  In fact it does exactly as it says on the tin and does so even before curtain up.  Whilst the audience are settling into their seats, the stage management team are still putting the finishes touches to the set and enlisting the help of a person in the front row to hold up a mantelpiece that won’t stay up on its own.  This is arguably the funniest part of the whole play with the running gag being that a door won’t keep shut and the aforementioned shelf over the fireplace keeps falling down.

This play highlighting the worst that can happen with am-dram was a great success at Edinburgh and the cast, three of whom wrote it, must be rightly thrilled with it’s transfer to the West End, following stints at The Old Red Lion and Trafalgar Studios.  Although one could say it’s a poor man’s Noises Off and not as clever, it is hilarious in places.  I imagine it has been extended for the London run and this is where it falls down.  The running gags run out of steam, with much of the visual comedy carrying on far too long.  Half way through, the mishaps that happen to the actors and set are all too predictable and although it did manage to make me laugh, I have to say that those people around me seemed to laugh that much more.  But then maybe I’m a jaded old grouch.

The cast play members of the Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society who are trying (and spectacularly failing) to stage a dreadful murder mystery entitled Murder at Haversham Manor.  The set has a mind of it’s own and, as one would expect, there is more ham on stage than in a pork butcher’s shop.

Some of the cast ham it up better than others.  I particularly enjoyed Dave Hearn as Max Bennett, a gangly twerp of the highest order, who is spectacularly good at milking laughs whilst simultaneously upstaging everyone else.  The soundman, played by Leonard Cook, proves what can be done with a lesser role whilst Charlie Russell in trying to portray a vamp (Sandra Wilkinson) postures and preens.  A less sexy female is hard to imagine.  Because the characters being played are useless and thereby irritating, it’s easy for this irritation to cloud everything else.  And, unfortunately, a couple of the cast irritated me so much, I was willing them to be hit by flying scenery and not be seen until curtain call.  For this, read Jonathan Sayer’s butler character, Dennis Tyde.  He, along with, Henry Lewis and Jonathan Sayer wrote the play, which is where his strengths must lay.

The director, Mark Bell, does a handsome job with pace and alacrity, Nigel Hook’s set design works a treat, whilst the costumes designed by Roberto Surace are spot on.

All in all credit must go to the group of graduates from LAMDA who, instead of bemoaning their lot at not getting acting work, founded Mischief Theatre.  Thanks to determination and hard work, they have a ‘Company That Goes Right’.