About the production of the play “The Cherry Orchard. "The Cherry Orchard": productions of the play (Russian and foreign) First production of the play The Cherry Orchard year

Lyubov Andreevna lived abroad for five years, I don’t know what she’s become now... She’s a good person. An easy, simple person. I remember when I was a boy of about fifteen, my late father - he was selling in a shop here in the village - hit me in the face with his fist, blood came out of my nose... Then we came together to the yard for some reason, and he was drunk. Lyubov Andreevna, as I remember now, still young, so thin, led me to the washstand, in this very room, in the nursery. “Don’t cry, he says, little man, he’ll heal before the wedding...”

A peasant... My father, it’s true, was a peasant, but here I am in a white vest and yellow shoes. With a pig's snout in a Kalash row... Just now he's rich, a lot of money, but if you think about it and figure it out, then the man is a man... (Flips through the book.) I read the book and didn’t understand anything. I read and fell asleep.

You can hear two carriages approaching the house. Lopakhin and Dunyasha quickly leave. The stage is empty. There is noise in the neighboring rooms. Firs, who had gone to meet Lyubov Andreevna, hurriedly passes across the stage, leaning on a stick; he is in an old livery and a tall hat; He says something to himself, but not a single word can be heard. The noise behind the stage is getting louder and louder. Voice: “Let’s go here...” Lyubov Andreevna, Anya and Charlotte Ivanovna with a dog on a chain, dressed for travel. Varya in a coat and scarf, Gaev, Simeonov-Pishchik, Lopakhin, Dunyasha with a bundle and an umbrella, a servant with things - everyone is walking through the room.

She looked back at him.

I will just bow to you and leave immediately. (Kisses his hand warmly.) I was ordered to wait until the morning, but I didn’t have enough patience...

If a lot of remedies are offered against a disease, this means that the disease is incurable. I think, I’m racking my brains, I have a lot of money, a lot, and that means, in essence, none. It would be nice to receive an inheritance from someone, it would be nice to marry our Anya to a very rich man, it would be nice to go to Yaroslavl and try his luck with the aunt countess. My aunt is very, very rich.

Anya appears at the door.

She married a non-nobleman and behaved in a manner that cannot be said to be very virtuous. She is good, kind, nice, I love her very much, but no matter how you come up with mitigating circumstances, I still have to admit that she is vicious. This is felt in her slightest movement.

Surprisingly, something got into my right eye... I couldn’t see well. And on Thursday, when I was in district court...

Still from the film “The Garden” (2008)

The estate of landowner Lyubov Andreevna Ranevskaya. Spring, cherry trees are blooming. But the beautiful garden will soon have to be sold for debts. For the last five years, Ranevskaya and her seventeen-year-old daughter Anya have lived abroad. Ranevskaya’s brother Leonid Andreevich Gaev and her adopted daughter, twenty-four-year-old Varya, remained on the estate. Things are bad for Ranevskaya, there are almost no funds left. Lyubov Andreevna always squandered money. Six years ago, her husband died from drunkenness. Ranevskaya fell in love with another person and got along with him. But soon her little son Grisha died tragically, drowning in the river. Lyubov Andreevna, unable to bear the grief, fled abroad. The lover followed her. When he fell ill, Ranevskaya had to settle him at her dacha near Menton and look after him for three years. And then, when he had to sell his dacha for debts and move to Paris, he robbed and abandoned Ranevskaya.

Gaev and Varya meet Lyubov Andreevna and Anya at the station. The maid Dunyasha and the merchant Ermolai Alekseevich Lopakhin are waiting for them at home. Lopakhin's father was a serf of the Ranevskys, he himself became rich, but says of himself that he remained a “man a man.” The clerk Epikhodov comes, a man with whom something constantly happens and who is nicknamed “twenty-two misfortunes.”

Finally the carriages arrive. The house is filled with people, everyone is in pleasant excitement. Everyone talks about their own things. Lyubov Andreevna looks at the rooms and through tears of joy remembers the past. The maid Dunyasha can’t wait to tell the young lady that Epikhodov proposed to her. Anya herself advises Varya to marry Lopakhin, and Varya dreams of marrying Anya to a rich man. The governess Charlotte Ivanovna, a strange and eccentric person, boasts about her amazing dog; the neighbor, the landowner Simeonov-Pishchik, asks for a loan of money. The old faithful servant Firs hears almost nothing and mutters something all the time.

Lopakhin reminds Ranevskaya that the estate should soon be sold at auction, the only way out is to divide the land into plots and rent them out to summer residents. Ranevskaya is surprised by Lopakhin’s proposal: how can her beloved wonderful cherry orchard be cut down! Lopakhin wants to stay longer with Ranevskaya, whom he loves “more than his own,” but it’s time for him to leave. Gaev makes a welcoming speech to the hundred-year-old “respected” cabinet, but then, embarrassed, he again begins to meaninglessly utter his favorite billiard words.

Ranevskaya does not immediately recognize Petya Trofimov: so he has changed, turned ugly, the “dear student” has turned into an “eternal student.” Lyubov Andreevna cries, remembering her little drowned son Grisha, whose teacher was Trofimov.

Gaev, left alone with Varya, tries to talk about business. There is a rich aunt in Yaroslavl, who, however, does not love them: after all, Lyubov Andreevna did not marry a nobleman, and she did not behave “very virtuously.” Gaev loves his sister, but still calls her “vicious,” which displeases Anya. Gaev continues to build projects: his sister will ask Lopakhin for money, Anya will go to Yaroslavl - in a word, they will not allow the estate to be sold, Gaev even swears by it. The grumpy Firs finally takes the master, like a child, to bed. Anya is calm and happy: her uncle will arrange everything.

Lopakhin never ceases to persuade Ranevskaya and Gaev to accept his plan. The three of them had breakfast in the city and, on their way back, stopped in a field near the chapel. Just now, here, on the same bench, Epikhodov tried to explain himself to Dunyasha, but she had already preferred the young cynical lackey Yasha to him. Ranevskaya and Gaev don’t seem to hear Lopakhin and are talking about completely different things. Without convincing the “frivolous, unbusinesslike, strange” people of anything, Lopakhin wants to leave. Ranevskaya asks him to stay: “it’s still more fun” with him.

Anya, Varya and Petya Trofimov arrive. Ranevskaya starts a conversation about a “proud man.” According to Trofimov, there is no point in pride: a rude, unhappy person should not admire himself, but work. Petya condemns the intelligentsia, who are incapable of work, those people who philosophize importantly, and treat men like animals. Lopakhin enters the conversation: he works “from morning to evening,” dealing with large capitals, but he is becoming more and more convinced how few decent people there are around. Lopakhin doesn’t finish speaking, Ranevskaya interrupts him. In general, everyone here does not want and does not know how to listen to each other. There is silence, in which the distant sad sound of a broken string can be heard.

Soon everyone disperses. Left alone, Anya and Trofimov are glad to have the opportunity to talk together, without Varya. Trofimov convinces Anya that one must be “above love”, that the main thing is freedom: “all of Russia is our garden,” but in order to live in the present, one must first atone for the past through suffering and labor. Happiness is close: if not they, then others will definitely see it.

The twenty-second of August arrives, trading day. It was on this evening, completely inappropriately, that a ball was being held at the estate, and a Jewish orchestra was invited. Once upon a time, generals and barons danced here, but now, as Firs complains, both the postal official and the station master “don’t like to go.” Charlotte Ivanovna entertains guests with her tricks. Ranevskaya anxiously awaits her brother's return. The Yaroslavl aunt nevertheless sent fifteen thousand, but it was not enough to redeem the estate.

Petya Trofimov “calms” Ranevskaya: it’s not about the garden, it’s over long ago, we need to face the truth. Lyubov Andreevna asks not to judge her, to have pity: after all, without the cherry orchard, her life loses its meaning. Every day Ranevskaya receives telegrams from Paris. At first she tore them right away, then - after reading them first, now she no longer tears them. “This wild man,” whom she still loves, begs her to come. Petya condemns Ranevskaya for her love for “a petty scoundrel, a nonentity.” Angry Ranevskaya, unable to restrain herself, takes revenge on Trofimov, calling him a “funny eccentric”, “freak”, “neat”: “You have to love yourself... you have to fall in love!” Petya tries to leave in horror, but then stays and dances with Ranevskaya, who asked him for forgiveness.

Finally, a confused, joyful Lopakhin and a tired Gaev appear, who, without saying anything, immediately goes home. The Cherry Orchard was sold, and Lopakhin bought it. The “new landowner” is happy: he managed to outbid the rich man Deriganov at the auction, giving ninety thousand on top of his debt. Lopakhin picks up the keys thrown on the floor by the proud Varya. Let the music play, let everyone see how Ermolai Lopakhin “takes an ax to the cherry orchard”!

Anya consoles her crying mother: the garden has been sold, but there is a whole life ahead. There will be a new garden, more luxurious than this, “quiet, deep joy” awaits them...

The house is empty. Its inhabitants, having said goodbye to each other, leave. Lopakhin is going to Kharkov for the winter, Trofimov is returning to Moscow, to the university. Lopakhin and Petya exchange barbs. Although Trofimov calls Lopakhin a “beast of prey,” necessary “in the sense of metabolism,” he still loves his “tender, subtle soul.” Lopakhin offers Trofimov money for the trip. He refuses: no one should have power over the “free man”, “in the forefront of moving” to the “highest happiness”.

Ranevskaya and Gaev even became happier after selling the cherry orchard. Previously they were worried and suffered, but now they have calmed down. Ranevskaya is going to live in Paris for now with money sent by her aunt. Anya is inspired: a new life is beginning - she will graduate from high school, work, read books, and a “new wonderful world” will open up before her. Suddenly, out of breath, Simeonov-Pishchik appears and instead of asking for money, on the contrary, he gives away debts. It turned out that the British found white clay on his land.

Everyone settled down differently. Gaev says that now he is a bank employee. Lopakhin promises to find a new place for Charlotte, Varya got a job as a housekeeper for the Ragulins, Epikhodov, hired by Lopakhin, remains on the estate, Firs should be sent to the hospital. But still Gaev sadly says: “Everyone is abandoning us... we suddenly became unnecessary.”

There must finally be an explanation between Varya and Lopakhin. Varya has been teased as “Madame Lopakhina” for a long time. Varya likes Ermolai Alekseevich, but she herself cannot propose. Lopakhin, who also speaks highly of Varya, agrees to “end this matter right away.” But when Ranevskaya arranges their meeting, Lopakhin, having never made up his mind, leaves Varya, taking advantage of the first pretext.

“It's time to go! On the road! - with these words they leave the house, locking all the doors. All that remains is old Firs, whom everyone seemed to care about, but whom they forgot to send to the hospital. Firs, sighing that Leonid Andreevich went in a coat and not a fur coat, lies down to rest and lies motionless. The same sound of a broken string is heard. “Silence falls, and you can only hear how far away in the garden an ax is knocking on a tree.”

Retold

The play “The Cherry Orchard” by Igor Ilyinsky became the first production in the history of the Maly Theater based on the play of the same name by Anton Chekhov. Previously, the works of the great playwright were not of interest to this theater. Igor Ilyinsky tried to get as close as possible to the author’s reading of the play as a comedy (comedy of life), where human fate was decided behind absurd and, at first glance, meaningless conversations. The heroes were having fun, pretending not to notice how their lives were falling apart, how their past was being erased into dust. The image of the cherry orchard came to the fore in the performance as a symbol of dreams and daydreams, something unattainably beautiful, without which human life is impossible and meaningless. The garden literally filled the stage space, its snow-white branches visible through the wide-open windows.

Landowner Lyubov Andreevna Ranevskaya (Tatyana Eremeeva) returns from Paris to her family estate, which is on the verge of ruin. The main value of this estate is the luxurious cherry orchard as a memory of family, childhood and home. Ranevskaya had not been to her homeland for more than five years, trying to get rid of the melancholy for her son who died early, drowned in a pond not far from the estate. And therefore, for her, coming home is both joyful and alarming. Everything reminds of the tragic event and foreshadows a sad end. But it is here that Ranevskaya feels warmth and comfort, the joy of meeting with loved ones and her native garden. “I love my Motherland, I love it dearly,” she says. But the estate, along with the garden, goes under the hammer to a wealthy merchant Lopakhin (Viktor Korshunov), secretly in love with Ranevskaya, who once saved him, still a boy, from his father’s beatings.

The garden was sold to Lopakhin, a man of progressive views, a businessman and master of the new era. He plans to cut down the cherry orchard and build dachas in its place. This means that Ranevskaya, her brother Gaev (Nikolai Annenkov), two daughters - Anya (Elena Tsyplakova) and Varya (Lyudmila Pirogova) - say goodbye to the past forever. What awaits them in the future is unknown. The guests are having fun in the estate to the music, congratulating the new owner, and the previous owners froze in tense anticipation. Lopakhin, regular guest Epikhodov (Vladimir Dubrovsky) and the maid Dunyasha (Olga Titaeva) await Ranevskaya in the same anxious tension at the beginning of the first act.

In the Maly Theater performance, the central figure was an episodic hero - the old and decrepit servant Firs, played by Igor Ilyinsky himself. He, as the main keeper of the hearth, took good care of the estate. There is no servility or servility in him, he is full of self-esteem, calmness and confidence. And he is the only one, like the captain of a sinking ship, who does not leave his home when the windows are boarded up and a lock is hung on the door. One of the critics called Firs, performed by Ilyinsky, “King Lear of the Russian estate.” An era passes with him.

In Ilyinsky’s play, the conflict was not reduced to a clash between people of the old and new generations, but consisted of the presence or absence of a desire for something higher than everyday reality. After all, Ranevskaya-Eremeeva’s thoughts were all this time far from worries about the estate. She thinks about the lover she left in Paris. This humiliating and bitter love torments her, but she does not have the strength to cope with it. In a dispute with Petya Trofimov, Anya’s fiancé, she defends her rights as a loving and suffering woman. But the sale of the estate frees Ranevskaya from worries, no matter how sublime the memories may be. Likewise, Gaev-Annenkov, a lazy man and a talker, divorced from reality, internally feels relief from the sale of the estate, which was too much of a burden for him. He protects the estate from Lopakhin, primarily guided by aesthetic considerations: the cherry orchard is more attractive than the dachas. However, he easily comes to terms with his fate. Unlike Ranevskaya and Gaev, Lopakhin is a man of action. But he, too, is drawn to beauty, to the beautiful, the embodiment of which for him was Ranevskaya. The sisters also look at the sale of the estate differently: Varya is afraid of the impending instability, Anya is full of hope and faith in a new life.

HISTORY OF CREATION

Time of creation of the work. The play was written at the very beginning of the twentieth century (1903), during a period of reassessment and rethinking of established values ​​and old traditions. Three “revolutions” of the 19th century prepared a sense of catastrophe, which was described in art and felt by contemporaries: biological (Darwinism), economic (Marxism) and philosophical (the teachings of Nietzsche).

“The Cherry Orchard” is the last play by A. Chekhov. This is the writer’s symbolic farewell to life. He created it as an epilogue to his own life and as an epilogue to Russian literature - the golden age of classical Russian literature was actually ending, and the silver age was beginning. The work contains elements of both tragedy (a metaphor for the end of life) and comedy (the characters are depicted in a parody). The main event in the life of theatrical Moscow. The play “The Cherry Orchard” was Chekhov’s first absolute success as a playwright. It was written in 1903, and already in January 1904 the first production took place at the Moscow Art Theater.

This work formed the basis of a new drama. It was Chekhov who was the first to realize that previous theatrical techniques were outdated. The nature of the conflict, the characters, Chekhov's dramaturgy - all this was unexpected and new. There are many conventions (symbols) in the play, and they should be interpreted based on the author’s definition of the genre - “a comedy in four acts.” This play has become a classic of Russian theater and still remains relevant. It revealed the artistic discoveries of the playwright, which laid the foundation for modernism in Russian literature and drama. At the end of the piece the ax is knocked and the string breaks. Chekhov says goodbye to the old Russian life, and to the landowner's estate, and to the Russian landowner. But, above all, it is imbued with the mood of the writer’s farewell to life.

At the end of the play, all its characters leave, having forgotten the old servant Firs in the closed house - they all have no time for him. Both kind Petya and romantic Anya forgot about Firs. Chekhov's innovation. There is no main character in the play. If in a classical drama the hero manifested himself in actions, then in Chekhov’s drama the characters manifest themselves and reveal themselves in their experiences (the pathos of action was replaced by the pathos of reflection). The author actively uses stage directions that form the subtext: silence, silence, pause. A new form of conflict: “People are having lunch, drinking tea, and at this time their destinies are being broken” (A. Chekhov).

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WHY IS THE PLAY NAMED "THE CHERRY ORCHARD"

The central image of the play is indicated in the title of the work. The whole action takes place around the cherry orchard: sometimes the events themselves unfold there, the characters constantly talk about it, they try to save it, it unites all the heroes of the work.

Small Motherland is a secluded corner of nature, the family nest of Ranevskaya and Gaev, in which they spent their childhood and youth. Such places become part of the person himself. The symbol of beauty is the cherry orchard - something beautiful and admiring, beauty that always influences the souls of people and their emotional state. The symbol of the passing time is the departure of the nobility from the life of Russia.

Smart and educated people are unable to preserve the garden, that is, their way of life. In the play, a garden is cut down, but in life, noble nests fall apart. “All of Russia is our garden.” These are the words of one of the characters in the play - Petya Trofimov. The Cherry Orchard is a symbol of the future of Russia, reflections on the fate of the entire country. Will the younger generation be able to grow a new blooming garden? This question remains open in the play.

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GENRE OF THE PLAY

The plot is the sale of a cherry orchard, the owners of which are the bankrupt nobles Ranevskaya and Gaev, brother and sister. The new owner of the garden becomes the merchant Lopakhin, the grandson of a serf who previously worked on this estate.

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GENRE FEATURES

A. Chekhov himself called “The Cherry Orchard” a comedy not for genre definition. Thus, the author noted that the play should be performed as a comedy. If you play it as a drama or tragedy, you will not get the intended dissonance, and the deep meaning of the work will be lost. The play actually has a lot of comedic moments, situations, characters, and lines. “The Cherry Orchard” has the structure of a musical work - the play is built on leitmotifs, musical techniques and repetitions are used, the sound of a broken string appears twice. There are a lot of tears in the play, but the author noted that these are not serious tears, you can laugh at them. In Chekhov, the funny is intertwined with the sad, the comic with the tragic - everything is like in real life. The heroes resemble sad clowns. “What I came out with was not a drama, but a comedy, sometimes even a farce” (A. Chekhov).

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LYUBOV ANDREEVNA RANEVSKAYA

Once upon a time, a wealthy noblewoman, Ranevskaya, traveled to Paris, had a dacha in the south of France, and at balls in her house “generals, barons, and admirals danced.” Now the past seems to her like a blooming cherry orchard. She cannot adapt to the new conditions - she continues to waste money, showing lordly carelessness in everything. “She is good, kind, nice...”, her brother Gaev says about her. “She's a good person. Light, simple...” Lopakhin speaks of Ranevskaya. He admits with delight: “My father was a serf to your grandfather and father, but you, in fact, you once did so much for me that I forgot everything and love you like my own... more than my own.” Ranevskaya is loved by Anya and Varya, and the landowner-neighbor Simeonov-Pishchik, and Petya Trofimov, and the servants. She is equally affectionate, generous and kind to everyone. But all positive qualities, combined with carelessness, spoiledness and frivolity, often turn into their opposite - cruelty and indifference. Ranevskaya generously gives gold to a random passer-by, but there is nothing to eat at home. Lyubov Andreevna invites the orchestra to the ball, unable to pay the musicians. Frivolity and inability to live independently appeared thanks to the serfs who did all the work on her estate. She says that she cannot live without the cherry orchard, but the orchard is sold, and she is throwing an inappropriate ball in the house. Ranevskaya is emotional and inconsistent in her actions. In the first act, she resolutely tears up, without even reading, telegrams from Paris. In the future, the heroine no longer does this, and at the end of the play, calmed down and cheerful, she willingly returns to Paris to her former lover who tormented her, leaving Varya and Anya without money, forgetting about Firs. Love is the most important thing in life for her (the name and surname were not given by chance - the heroine is impressionable, sensitive and vulnerable). At first she insisted that Paris was finished forever. But when the Yaroslavl aunt sent money, it turned out that it was not enough to save the estate, but enough to return to Europe. The nobility of Ranevskaya is that she does not blame anyone for the misfortunes that befell her. And no one blames Lyubov Andreevna for the fact that she actually led to the complete collapse of the family estate.

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LEONID ANDREEVICH GAEV

Gaev is the embodiment of the image of a pathetic aristocrat. He himself admits: “They say that I spent my entire fortune on candy.” Gaev can be called an overgrown baby: he is 51 years old, and the footman, who is already 87, undresses him before going to bed. Leonid Andreevich got used to an idle life. He has two passions - playing billiards and making impassioned speeches (it is no coincidence that the name Gaev is so consonant with the word gaer, which means a jester; one who clowns around makes faces for the amusement of others). He looks like a parody of an educated nobleman. he has a special speech, replete with billiard terms, a characteristic word - “who?” Worthlessness, laziness, idle talk and conceit - these are the main features of this personality. Anya says to Gaev: “Everyone loves and respects you... How good you are, uncle, how smart!” But Chekhov questions this opinion. Along with lordly grace and sensitivity, lordly swagger and arrogance are noticeable in Gaev. Leonid Andreevich is convinced of the exclusivity of the people in his circle (“white bones”) and every time he makes others feel his position as a master. He is gentle with his family, but contemptuously - disdainful with the servants (“Get away, my dear, you smell like chicken,” he says to Yasha. “I’m tired of you, brother,” - to Firs). He considers “grimy” Lopakhin a boor and a fist. But at the same time, Gaev is proud of his closeness to the people, asserting: “It’s not for nothing that a man loves me.” At the beginning of the play, he swears on his honor that the cherry orchard will not be sold. But Lopakhin buys the garden, and no one remembers his empty promises and words. Gaev and Ranevskaya rejected Lopakhin's offer, but they themselves could not save their estate. This is not only the frivolity and impracticality of the ruined nobles, it is the idea that the nobility is not capable, as before, of determining the path of development of the country. Their heightened sense of beauty does not allow them to turn a poetic cherry orchard into a commercial enterprise. The actions of the characters demonstrate to the viewer that it is impossible to trust the words of the landowners, spoken even sincerely and excitedly. Returning from the auction at which the cherry orchard was sold, Gaev does not hide his tears. However, his tears instantly disappear as soon as he hears the blows of the cue. This proves that deep experiences are alien to him.

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The former serf of Gaeva and Ranevskaya becomes the new owner of the cherry orchard. In the recent past, his ancestors were serfs who worked on the estate, “his grandfather and father were slaves,” “they were not even allowed into the kitchen.” Lopakhin exclaims: “If only my father and grandfather would get up from their graves and look at the whole incident, like their Ermolai, the beaten, illiterate Ermolai, who ran barefoot in the winter, how this same Ermolai bought an estate, the most beautiful of which there is nothing in the world.” Ermolai managed to get out of poverty and achieve material well-being without outside help. he has many positive traits: he remembers Ranevskaya’s kindness, is hardworking (“You know, I get up at five o’clock in the morning, I work from morning to evening...”), friendly, “a man of enormous intelligence,” as Pishchik speaks of him. An enterprising merchant has great energy and acumen. His hard work and perseverance were formed in difficult living conditions, and they tempered his purposeful nature. Lopakhin lives for today. His ideas are rational and practical. He correctly assesses the situation of Ranevskaya and Gaev and gives them very valuable advice. If they had accepted the offer to divide the cherry orchard into summer cottages and rent out the land, they could have saved their estate and gotten out of a difficult financial situation. The characters have different attitudes towards Lopakhin. Ranevskaya considers him a good, interesting person, Gaev - a boor and a fist, Simeonov-Pishchik is a man of great intelligence, and Petya Trofimov compares him to a predatory beast. This contradictory perception of Lopakhin also reflects Chekhov’s attitude towards him. A fashionably dressed and successful businessman lacks culture and education, and he himself often feels inferior. Business acumen erased the spirituality in him (Chekhov notes the predatory nature of capitalism). By contributing to the economic progress of the country, the Lopakhins are unlikely to be able to eliminate poverty, injustice, and lack of culture, because their personal interests, profit and profit come first. The sound of an ax cutting down a cherry orchard symbolizes the transition from past to present. And the future looks wonderful when the younger generation plants and grows their new garden.

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MINOR CHARACTERS

Supporting characters participate in the play along with the main characters. They often repeat the thoughts of the main characters. In addition, the author put into their mouths important thoughts for understanding the play. Governess Charlotte Ivanovna turns everything serious into funny. With her tricks and ventriloquism, she emphasizes the comedy of what is happening. It is she who owns the phrase that any character could say: “where I come from and who I am, I don’t know...” The servants Yash and Dunyash are ridiculous in their desire to be like their masters in everything. In essence, these are images of Ranevskaya and Gaev brought to the point of grotesquery. Dunyasha always powders herself, declares that she has “become tender, so delicate” and is very reminiscent of Ranevskaya. Cheeky Yasha, accusing everyone of ignorance, is a recognizable parody of Gaev. The old servant Firs personifies the “old life”, the “old order”. He appears rarely in the play, nevertheless he plays a significant role - he is entrusted with the final monologue. The image of Firs emphasizes those features that his owners lack: thoroughness, thriftiness.

Chekhov is disgusted with Gaev, who has nothing left in his head except the rules of billiards. Lopakhin, a representative of the newly born Russian capitalism, arouses his curiosity. But the author does not accept pragmatic people; it is obvious to him that nothing will work out for the self-satisfied Lopakhin. (Everything miraculously works out for non-pragmatic characters: for example, rare white clay was suddenly discovered on Simeonov-Pishchik’s estate, and he received money for its rent in advance). Ermolai Lopakhin waves his arms all the time, Petya gives him advice: “Get out of the habit of waving. And also to build dachas, to expect that individual owners will emerge from the dacha owners over time, to count like this also means to wave...” Lopakhin has Napoleonic plans, but, according to the author, they are not destined to come true. This is a temporary character, other times will come and the Lopakhins, having done their job, will move on. Chekhov's sympathies are with Petya and Anya. The eternal student Trofimov is funny (pathetic galoshes, falls down the stairs), but he gets Anya’s love.

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PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE OF RUSSIA

“The Cherry Orchard” is often called a work about the past, present and future of Russia. The past - Ranevskaya and Gaev. They live in memories, they are not satisfied with the present, and they don’t even want to think about the future. These are educated, sophisticated people, full of inactive love for others. When they are in danger, the heroes behave like children who close their eyes in fear. Therefore, they do not accept Lopakhin’s proposal to save the cherry orchard and hope for a miracle, without even trying to change anything. Ranevskaya and Gaev are not capable of being masters of their land. Such people cannot influence the development of their country. The present - Lopakhin. The smug Lopakhin is a prominent representative of the emerging bourgeoisie in Russia. Society places great hopes on people like him. The hero feels like the master of life. But Lopakhin remained a “man,” unable to understand that the cherry orchard is not only a symbol of beauty, but also a kind of thread connecting the past with the present. You can't cut down your roots. And Ermolai recklessly destroys the old, without building and without plans to build something new. He cannot become the future of Russia because he destroys beauty (the cherry orchard) for his own benefit. The future is Petya and Anya. It cannot be said that the future belongs to a 17-year-old girl, full of only the strength and desire to do good. Or the eternal student, the funny “shabby gentleman” (his whole appearance is quite pathetic), who is trying to reorganize his life on the basis of only vague ideas. Chekhov does not see a hero in Russian life who would become the real owner of the cherry orchard. The question in the play remains open. Chekhov sees that there is no connection between times (a broken string is a symbol of the gap between generations). But Anya and Petya have to look for the answer, because so far there is no one else but them.

Dawn. Outside the window is a blooming cherry orchard.

Lyubov Andreevna Ranevskaya returns to her estate from Paris with her daughter Anya. The day passes in conversations with family and guests. Everyone is excited by the meeting, talking without listening to each other.

In a confidential conversation with Varya, Ranevskaya’s adopted daughter, Anya learns that the merchant Lopakhin, who is considered Varya’s fiancé, has never proposed, and this event is not expected. Anya complains about the eternal lack of money in Paris and her mother’s lack of understanding of the current situation: she thoughtlessly throws away her last money, orders the most expensive things in restaurants, and gives footmen a ruble as a tip. In response, Varya reports that there is money here too.
no, moreover, the estate will be sold in August.

Petya Trofimov is still at the estate. This is a student, a former tutor of Ranevskaya’s late son, Grisha, who drowned in a river at the age of seven. Anya, having learned about Petya's presence, is afraid that the sight of the latter will evoke bitter memories in her mother.

The old footman Firs appears, puts on white gloves and begins to set the table.

Lyubov Andreevna, her brother Leonid Andreevich Gaev and Lopakhin enter. The merchant had to leave at five o'clock, but he really wanted to look at Lyubov Andreevna, talk to her, she is still just as magnificent.

His father was her father's serf, but she once did so much for him that he forgot everything and loves her more than his own. Ranevskaya rejoices at returning home. Gaev, telling her the news, from time to time takes a box of lollipops from his pocket and sucks. Lopakhin says that the estate is being sold for debts, and proposes to divide this land into summer cottages and rent them out.

Then they will have an income of twenty-five thousand a year. True, you will have to demolish the old buildings and cut down the garden. Lyubov Andreevna categorically objects: the garden is the most wonderful place in the entire province.

According to Lopakhin, they have no other choice, the only remarkable thing about the garden is that it is very large, and cherries are born once every two years, and no one buys those. But Firs remembers that in the past, dried cherries were transported by cartloads to Moscow and Kharkov, and they earned a lot of money. Varya gives her mother two telegrams from Paris, but the past is over, and Lyubov Andreevna tears them up. Gaev, changing the subject,
turns to a hundred-year-old wardrobe and begins to make a sentimental, pompous speech, bringing himself to tears. The sister sums it up. that he is still the same, Gaev is embarrassed. Lopakhin reminds that if they think about dachas, he will lend money, and leaves. Lyubov Andreevna and Leonid Andreevich admire the garden and remember their childhood.

Petya Trofimov enters in a worn student uniform. Lyubov Andreevna hugs him and cries. and, having looked closely, asks why he has grown so old and ugly, but he was once a nice student. Petya says that in the carriage one woman called him a shabby gentleman and, probably, he will be an eternal student.

Gaev and Varya remain in the room. Gaev notices that his sister has not yet lost the habit of wasting money. He has a lot of ideas on how to improve things: it would be good to receive an inheritance, it would be good to marry Anya to a very rich man, it would be good to go to Yaroslavl and ask the aunt countess for money. The aunt is very rich, but she doesn’t love them: firstly, Ranevskaya married a sworn attorney, not a nobleman, and secondly, she did not behave very virtuously.

Lyubov Andreevna is kind and nice, but she is vicious. Then they notice that Anya is standing at the door. The uncle kisses her, the girl reproaches him for his last words and asks him to remain silent, then he himself will be calmer. He agrees and excitedly changes his plans to save the estate: it will be possible to arrange a loan against bills to pay interest to the bank, Anya’s mother will talk to Lopakhin, he will not refuse her, and Anya will rest and go to her grandmother in Yaroslavl. This is how everything will work out. He swears that he will not allow the estate to be sold. Anya
She calmed down and, happy, hugs her uncle. Firs appears and reproaches G Aeva that he hadn’t gone to bed yet, and everyone was leaving.