A play by Anton Chekhov, directed by Bryant Pope for the University of Texas Department of Theatre and Dance, "The Cherry Orchard" is a play about a Russian family facing the sale of their long-held estate. The play is full of helplessly delusional characters who wander through their life without any clue as to what differentiates reality from fantasy. The main characters, Lyoubov and Leonid Ranevskaya, would rather reminisce on the childhoods they spent at the estate, which is now up for auction as they have no money with which to pay the mortgage. Lyoubov also has delusions of love awaiting her in Paris, while Leonid oddly fantasizes about a perfect game of billiards. The family tutor, Petya, who sees himself as a brilliant torch leading the way to the happiness of the future, really is simply masking his own feelings of inadequacy with his reality. And finally, there is Yermolai, the once-poor, now-wealthy acquaintance of the family, who cannot untangle himself from the self-imposed shame he feels about his upbringing to embrace the life he has made for himself. The play was funny, but mostly tragic, as I find Russian literature tends to be. As presumably intended by Chekhov, and perhaps in parallel to the characters, the ending leaves the audience unsure of what is next to come and where the characters will find themselves once reality takes hold.
