The genre uniqueness of the play The Cherry Orchard is brief. The problem of genre

The play does not have a classical plot, climax and dramatic action in the classical understanding of these concepts. " The Cherry Orchard", like all Chekhov's plays, differs from the usual dramatic works. It is devoid of spectacular scenes and external variety. The main event - the sale of the estate with the cherry orchard - takes place not in front of the audience, but behind the scenes. On stage, the viewer sees scenes of everyday life (people talk about everyday trifles, quarrel and make up, rejoice at the meeting, sad about the upcoming separation).

In a comedy there are 4 actions that are not divided into phenomena. The time frame for the play is from May to October. The composition is circular - the play begins with Ranevskaya’s arrival from Paris and ends with her departure to Paris. The composition itself reflects the meaningless, dull and uneventful life of the nobles. To understand the author’s attitude to what is happening and the characters, you need to pay close attention to the carefully thought-out system of images, arrangement characters, alternation of mise-en-scène, coupling of monologues and dialogues, into individual remarks and author’s remarks.

Act one

Exposition. Characters awaiting Ranevskaya's arrival from Paris. Viewer
sees the situation in the house, where everyone talks and thinks about their own things, where an atmosphere of alienation and disunity reigns.

The beginning. Ranevskaya appears with her daughter. It turns out that the estate is up for auction. Lopakhin suggests giving it away as a dacha, but Gaev and Ranevskaya are unable to make such a decision. This is the beginning of a conflict, but not so much between people, but between generations, past and present. The Cherry Orchard is a metaphor for the beautiful past of the nobles who are unable to preserve it. Time itself carries conflict.

Act two

Development of action. The fate of the cherry orchard and Ranevskaya's estate is being decided.

Act three

Climax. Somewhere behind the scenes the estate and cherry orchard are being sold, and
stage - an absurd ball organized by Ranevskaya with her last money.

Act four

Denouement. After the problem is resolved, everyone calms down and rushes to the future - they leave. The blows of an ax can be heard - this is the cherry orchard being cut down. In the final scene, the old servant Firs remains in the boarded up house.

The originality of the composition lies in the natural development of the action, complicated
parallel lines, digressions, everyday trifles, extra-plot
motives, in the nature of dialogues. The dialogues are varied in content (everyday, comic, lyrical, dramatic). The author often interrupts them with something insignificant and trivial, trying to convey the spontaneity of real life. Chekhov's innovation is that the play is extremely close to life.

The events in the play can only be called a rehearsal for a conflict that will happen in the future. It is unknown what will happen to the characters in the play next and how their lives will turn out.

In order to properly understand the genre features of Chekhov’s play “The Cherry Orchard,” let’s define the concept of the comedy genre itself. And what the innovative playwright Chekhov brought to his understanding.

Comedy is one of the main types of drama, in which the conflict, action and characters are interpreted in the forms of the funny and imbued with the comic.

There are:

• sitcom (based on cunning intrigue)
• and a comedy of characters (based on ridicule of some human trait- stinginess, rudeness, etc.).

According to the nature of laughter, comedies are

• satirical (based on ridicule social vices society),
• comedies that combine satire, comedy, serious, touching;
• romantic or lyrical comedies (based on love misunderstandings),
• tragicomedy (laughter in such a comedy is permeated with awareness of the imperfection of life and man).

Comedy has its own roles: for example, a hero-lover, a reasoner (a hero through whose mouth the author speaks), a comic old woman or old man, a servant-rogue, etc. But these roles are mainly characteristic of classic comedy.

Features of Chekhov's dramaturgy

They say: , - because his works for the stage were so original that the viewer, accustomed to classical plays, could not even perceive these plays.

Vladimir Nabokov wrote:

“His (Chekhov’s) merit is that he found the right way out of the prison of cause-and-effect relationships and broke the shackles that fettered the captives of the art of drama.”

We can say that he destroyed the foundations of the old dramatic school and created opportunities for the development of drama in the twentieth century.

Genre originality of the comedy “The Cherry Orchard”

When starting to write this play, Chekhov defined it as a farce. He told his wife about the image of Ranevskaya:

“I’m writing a comic old woman for you.”

However, neither viewers nor readers perceive Ranevskaya as a type of traditional comic old woman, and this heroine is not considered an old woman.

In the play there is no clear division into positive and negative characters. Laughing at one of his heroes, the author at the same time sympathizes with him. The aged master Gaev is so funny, he makes pompous speeches in front of the closet, constantly inserts billiard words out of place, but he is also touching in his love for his sister and niece, he is touching in his helplessness. Perhaps all the characters in this comedy can be called klutzes.

The playwright's close attention is directed to the everyday life of the characters. The most significant events for the plot (the sale of the cherry orchard) take place behind the scenes.

Plot, composition as a reason for innovative display of conflict

The plot and composition are purely organizational in nature. The conflicts that arise between the characters are also secondary. So the conflict between Ranevskaya, Gaev and Lopakhin over the sale of the cherry orchard did not escalate. The heroes do nothing to save the cherry orchard, they just talk about it. But Lopakhin simply cannot miss out on a bargain. Thus, events develop naturally and are determined by the character of the heroes, but they do not contain the main conflict.

The main conflict is in the souls of the heroes, in the discrepancy between the dreams of happy life real awkward, unhappy. All the heroes feel this disorder of today’s life:

• Lopakhin does not become happier because he bought a cherry orchard;
• Ranevskaya and Gaev are unhappy in their own way and at the same time feel relieved that the garden has been sold;
• Petya and Anya only dream of a happy life, but this does not mean that this life will really be happy.

The peculiarities of the conflict affect the characters. The characters of the play reveal themselves not in their actions, but in their experiences. The heroes of “The Cherry Orchard” do not express themselves not only in action, but also in word.

Chekhov as a master of artistic half-hints - the role of subtext

His characters seem to utter everyday words, but behind these words there are hidden inner experiences. Thus, the so-called « undercurrent" in Chekhov's plays, subtext. The simple phrases “Epikhodov is coming”, “The sun has set” hide internal tension heroes, their disorder.

The lyricism of the piece, its internal melody, cohesion emotional experiences heroes also create its originality.

The comic in the play is enhanced by the fact that each of the main characters has, as it were, his own double - a secondary hero:

• Ranevskaya’s fate echoes the fate of Charlotte,
• Gaev’s aristocracy and his contempt for Lopakhin and at the same time his clumsiness are repeated in Yasha and Epikhodov, reflected in Epikhodov and Petya Trofimov.

The lyricism of the comedy “The Cherry Orchard” is in the dream of new Russia, Happy, new Russia. The whole play is imbued with this expectation of change, of the new, which creates the unique lyricism of the action.

There are no outwardly striking effects in Chekhov's plays. No wonder he himself said that

“there is not a single shot in the play.”

But sound design The play still creates the effect of empathy with what is happening in life, but rather in the mood and experiences of the characters.

This is, for example,

“the sound of a broken string, fading and sad.”

The genre of comedy “The Cherry Orchard” is a deliberately provocative move by the playwright. Chekhov thus destroys the principles of constructing a classical comedy and finds new ones dramatic means, which allow not only to reveal the problems posed, but also to show inner world heroes, the psychology of their experiences.

Features of the genre of the play by A.P. Chekhov's "The Cherry Orchard"

The remarkable merits of the play “The Cherry Orchard” and its innovative features have long been unanimously recognized by progressive critics. But when it comes to genre features plays, this unanimity gives way to dissent. Some see the play “The Cherry Orchard” as a comedy, others as a drama, and others as a tragicomedy. What is this play - drama, comedy, tragicomedy?

Before answering this question, it is necessary to note that Chekhov, striving for truth in life, for naturalness, created plays that were not purely dramatic or comedic, but of a very complex form.

In his plays, “the dramatic is realized in an organic mixture with the comic” [Byaly, 1981:48], and the comic is manifested in an organic interweaving with the dramatic.

Chekhov's plays are unique genre formations that can be called dramas or comedies, only bearing in mind their leading genre tendency, and not the consistent implementation of the principles of drama or comedy in their traditional understanding.

A convincing example of this is the play “The Cherry Orchard.” Already completing this play, Chekhov wrote to Vl on September 2, 1903. To I. Nemirovich-Danchenko: “I’ll call the play a comedy”

On September 15, 1903, he reported to M. P. Alekseeva (Lilina): “What came out of me was not a drama, but a comedy, in some places even a farce.”

Calling the play a comedy, Chekhov relied on the comic motifs prevailing in it. If, when answering the question about the genre of this play, we keep in mind the leading tendency in the structure of its images and plot, then we will have to admit that it is based not on a dramatic, but on a comedic principle. Drama presupposes drama goodies plays, i.e. those to whom the author gives his main sympathies.

In this sense, such plays by A.P. Chekhov as “Uncle Vanya” and “Three Sisters” are dramas. In the play “The Cherry Orchard,” the author’s main sympathies belong to Trofimov and Anya, who do not experience any drama.

To recognize “The Cherry Orchard” as a drama means to recognize the experiences of the owners of the cherry orchard, the Gaevs and Ranevskys, as truly dramatic, capable of evoking deep sympathy and compassion of people moving not backwards, but forwards, into the future.

But this could not have happened in the play. Chekhov does not defend, does not affirm, but exposes the owners of the cherry orchard; he shows their emptiness and insignificance, their complete incapacity for serious experiences.

The play “The Cherry Orchard” cannot be recognized as a tragicomedy. For this, she lacks neither tragicomic heroes, nor tragicomic situations that run through the entire play and define it. end-to-end effect. Gaev, Ranevskaya, Pischik are too small as tragicomic heroes. Yes, in addition, the leading optimistic idea, expressed in positive images, clearly emerges in the play. It is more correct to call this play a lyrical comedy.

The comedy of The Cherry Orchard is determined, firstly, by the fact that it positive images What Trofimov and Anya are are shown in no dramatic way. Drama is not characteristic of these images, either socially or individually. Both in their inner essence and in the author’s assessment, these images are optimistic.

The image of Lopakhin is also clearly undramatic, which, in comparison with the images of local nobles, is shown as relatively positive and major. The comedy of the play is confirmed, secondly, by the fact that of the two owners of the cherry orchard, one (Gaev) is presented primarily comically, and the second (Ranevskaya) in such dramatic situations that mainly contribute to showing their negative essence.

The comic basis of the play is clearly visible, thirdly, in the comic-satirical depiction of almost all the minor characters: Epikhodov, Pishchik, Charlotte, Yasha, Dunyasha.

“The Cherry Orchard” also includes obvious motifs of vaudeville, even farce, expressed in jokes, tricks, jumping, and Charlotte’s dressing up. In terms of its themes and the nature of its artistic interpretation, “The Cherry Orchard” is a deeply social play. It has very strong accusatory motives.

Here the most important questions for that time are raised: the liquidation of the noble-estate economy, its final replacement with capitalism, the growth of democratic forces, etc.

With a clearly expressed socio-comedy basis in the play “The Cherry Orchard”, lyrical-dramatic and socio-psychological motives are clearly manifested: lyrical-dramatic and socio-psychological motives are most fully expressed in the depiction of Ranevskaya and Varya; lyrical and socio-psychological, especially in the depiction of Anya.

The originality of the genre of “The Cherry Orchard” was very well revealed by M. Gorky, who defined this play as a lyrical comedy.

"A.P. Chekhov,” he writes in the article “0 plays,” “created... a completely original type of play - a lyrical comedy” (M. Gorky, Collected Works, vol. 26, Goslitizdat, M. , 1953, p. 422).

But the lyrical comedy “The Cherry Orchard” is still perceived by many as a drama. For the first time such an interpretation of “The Cherry Orchard” was given by the Art Theater. October 20, 1903 K.S. Stanislavsky, having read The Cherry Orchard, wrote to Chekhov: “This is not a comedy... this is a tragedy, no matter what the outcome better life No matter what you discovered in the last act... I was afraid that on a second reading the play would not captivate me. Where to go!! I cried like a woman, I wanted to, but I couldn’t hold it in” (K, S. Stanislavsky, Articles. Speeches. Conversations. Letters, “Iskusstvo” publishing house, M., 1953 , pp. 150 -- 151).

In his memoirs about Chekhov, dating back to around 1907, Stanislavsky characterizes The Cherry Orchard as “a difficult drama of Russian life” (Ibid., p. 139).

K.S. Stanislavsky misunderstood and underestimated the power of the accusatory pathos directed against the representatives of the then departing world (Ranevskaya, Gaev, Pishchik), and in connection with this, in his directorial decision of the play, he overemphasized the lyrical-dramatic line associated with these characters.

Taking the drama of Ranevskaya and Gaev seriously, wrongfully putting forward a sympathetic attitude towards them and to some extent muting the accusatory and optimistic orientation of the play, Stanislavsky staged “The Cherry Orchard” in a dramatic manner. Expressing the erroneous point of view of the leaders of the Art Theater on The Cherry Orchard, N. Efros wrote:

“... no part of Chekhov’s soul was with Lopakhin. But part of his soul, rushing into the future, also belonged to “mortuos”, “The Cherry Orchard”. Otherwise, the image of a doomed, dying, leaving historical scene it wouldn’t be so tender” (N. Efros, “The Cherry Orchard” staged by the Moscow Art Theater, Pg., 1919, p. 36).

Based on the dramatic key, evoking sympathy for Gaev, Ranevskaya and Pischik, emphasizing their drama, all their first performers played these roles - Stanislavsky, Knipper, Gribunin. So, for example, characterizing the play of Stanislavsky - Gaev, N. Efros wrote: “this is a big child, pitiful and funny, but touching in its helplessness... There was an atmosphere of the subtlest humor around the figure. And at the same time she radiated great touching... everything in auditorium together with Firs, they felt something tender for this stupid, decrepit child, with signs of degeneration and spiritual decline, the “heir” of a dying culture... And even those who are not at all prone to sentimentality, to whom the harsh laws of historical necessity and class changes are sacred figures on the historical stage - even they probably gave moments of some compassion, a sigh of sympathetic or sympathetic sadness to this Gaev" (Ibid., pp. 81 - 83).

In the performance of the artists of the Art Theater, the images of the owners of the cherry orchard turned out to be clearly larger, noble, beautiful, spiritually complex than in Chekhov’s play. It would be unfair to say that the leaders of the Art Theater did not notice or ignored the comedy “ Cherry Orchard».

By staging this play, K.S. Stanislavski made such extensive use of its comedic motifs that it attracted strong objections from those who considered it a consistently pessimistic drama.

Dissatisfaction with the excessive, deliberate comedy of the stage embodiment of “The Cherry Orchard” in Art Theater critic N. Nikolaev also expressed this. “When,” he wrote, “the oppressive present foreshadows an even more difficult future, Charlotte Ivanovna appears and passes, leading a little dog on a long ribbon and with her entire exaggerated, highly comic figure causes laughter in the auditorium... For me, this laughter is - was a tub cold water... The mood turned out to be irreparably spoiled

But the real mistake of the first producers of The Cherry Orchard was not that they played up many of the play’s comic episodes, but that they neglected comedy as the leading principle of the play. Revealing Chekhov's play as a heavy drama of Russian life, the leaders of the Art Theater gave space to its comedy, but only subordinately; secondary.

M.N. Stroeva is right in defining the stage interpretation of the play “The Cherry Orchard” at the Art Theater as a tragicomedy

Interpreting the play in this regard, the direction of the Art Theater showed the representatives of the passing world (Ranevskaya, Gaev, Pishchik) as more internally rich and positive than they really are, and excessively increased sympathy for them. As a result, the subjective drama of the departing people sounded more deeply in the performance than was necessary.

As for the objective-comic essence of these people, the exposure of their inconsistency, this side was clearly not sufficiently revealed in the play. Chekhov could not agree with such an interpretation of The Cherry Orchard. S. Lyubosh remembers Chekhov at one of the first performances of “The Cherry Orchard” - sad and detached. “There was a roar of success in the packed theater, and Chekhov sadly repeated:

Not that, not that...

What's wrong?

Everything is wrong: both the play and the performance. I didn't get what I wanted. I saw something completely different, and they couldn’t understand what I wanted” (S. Lyubosh, “The Cherry Orchard.” Chekhov’s Anniversary Collection, M., 1910, p. 448).

Protesting against the false interpretation of his play, Chekhov, in a letter to O.L. Knipper wrote on April 10, 1904: “Why is my play so persistently called a drama on posters and in newspaper advertisements? Nemirovich and Alekseev positively see in my play something other than what I wrote, and I am ready to give any word - that both of them have never read my play carefully” (A.P. Chekhov, Complete collection works and letters, vol. 20, Goslitizdat, M., 1951, p. 265).

Chekhov was outraged by the purely slow pace of the play, especially the painfully drawn out IV act. “You have an act that should last 12 minutes maximum,” he wrote to O.L. Knipper, it takes 40 minutes. I can say one thing: Stanislavsky ruined my play” (Ibid., p. 258).

In April 1904, talking with the director Alexandrinsky Theater, Chekhov said:

“Is this my “Cherry Orchard”?.. Are these my types?.. With the exception of two or three performers, all this is not mine... I write life... This is a gray, ordinary life... But this is not boring whining... Sometimes they make me a crybaby, sometimes they just boring writer...And I wrote several volumes funny stories. And criticism casts me as some kind of mourner... They invent for me from their own heads what they themselves want, but I didn’t even think about it, and never saw it in a dream... It’s starting to make me angry.”

This is understandable, since the perception of the play as a drama dramatically changed its ideological orientation. What Chekhov laughed at, with such a perception of the play, already required deep sympathy.

Defending his play as a comedy, Chekhov, in fact, defended the correct understanding of it ideological meaning. The leaders of the Art Theater, in turn, could not remain indifferent to Chekhov’s statements that they were embodying “The Cherry Orchard” in a false way. Thinking about the text of the play and its stage embodiment, Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko were forced to admit that they misunderstood the play. But it is misunderstood, in their opinion, not in its fundamental sense, but in its particulars. The performance underwent changes along the way.

In December 1908, V.I. Nemirovich-Danchenko wrote: “Look at The Cherry Orchard, and you will not at all recognize in this lacy, graceful picture the heavy and heavy drama that the Orchard was in the first year” (V.I. Nemirovich-Danchenko, Letter to N.E. Efros (second half of December 1908), “Theater”, 1947, No. 4, p. 64).

In 1910, in a speech to the artists of the Art Theater K.S. Stanislavsky said:

“Let many of you admit that you did not immediately understand “The Cherry Orchard.” Years passed, and time confirmed Chekhov was right. It became clearer and clearer to the leaders of the Art Theater that the need for more decisive changes in the performance in the direction indicated by Chekhov became clearer and clearer.

Resuming the play “The Cherry Orchard” after a ten-year break, the directors of the Art Theater introduced into it major changes: significantly accelerated the pace of its development; the first act was comedically enlivened; they removed excessive psychologism in the main characters and increased their revealing nature. This was especially reflected in the play of Stanislavsky - Gaev, “His image,” noted in Izvestia, “is now revealed primarily from a purely comedic side. We would say that idleness, lordly daydreaming, the complete inability to take on any work and truly childish carelessness were completely exposed by Stanislavsky. Stanislavsky's new Gaev is a most convincing example of harmful worthlessness. Knipper-Chekhova began to play even more openly, even easier, revealing her Ranevskaya in the same plane of “exposure” (Yur. Sobolev, “The Cherry Orchard” at the Art Theater, “Izvestia” dated May 25, 1928, No. 120).

The fact that the initial interpretation of “The Cherry Orchard” at the Art Theater was the result of a misunderstanding of the text of the play was acknowledged by its directors not only in correspondence, in a narrow circle of artists of the Art Theater, but also before the general public. V. I. Nemirovich-Danchenko, speaking in 1929 in connection with the 25th anniversary of the first performance of “The Cherry Orchard,” said: “And this wonderful work was not understood at first... maybe our performance will require some changes, some rearrangements, at least in particulars; But regarding the version that Chekhov wrote vaudeville, that this play should be staged in a satirical context, I say with complete conviction that this should not happen. There is a satirical element in the play - both in Epikhodov and in other persons, but pick up the text and you will see: there is “crying”, in another place - “crying”, but in vaudeville they will not cry! Vl.I. Ne mirovich-Danchenko, Articles. Speeches. Conversations. Letters, ed. "Art", 1952, pp. 108 - 109).

It is true that The Cherry Orchard is not a vaudeville act. But it’s unfair that they supposedly don’t cry in vaudeville, and based on the presence of crying people, “The Cherry Orchard” is considered a heavy drama. For example, in Chekhov’s vaudeville “The Bear” the landowner and her lackey cry, and in his vaudeville “The Proposal” Lomov cries and Chubukova groans. In the vaudeville “Az and Fert” by P. Fedorov, Lyubushka and Akulina cry. In the vaudeville “Teacher and Student” by A. Pisarev, Lyudmila and Dasha cry. In the vaudeville "Hussar Girl" Kony Laura cries. The point is not in the presence or even in the number of people crying, but in the nature of the crying.

When, through tears, Dunyasha says: “I broke the saucer,” and Pishchik says, “Where is the money?”, this evokes not a dramatic, but a comic reaction. Sometimes tears express joyful excitement: for Ranevskaya at her first entry into the nursery upon returning to her homeland, for the devoted Firs, who was waiting for his mistress to arrive.

Often tears signify special cordiality: in Gaev, when addressing Anya in the first act (“my little one. My child”...); in Trofimov, calming Ranevskaya (in the first act) and then telling her: “after all, he robbed you” (in the third act); at Lopakhin, calming Ranevskaya (at the end of the third act).

Tears as an expression are acute dramatic situations in The Cherry Orchard are very rare. These moments can be recounted: in Ranevskaya in the first act, when meeting with Trofimov, who reminded her of her drowned son, and in the third act, in an argument with Trofimov, when she remembers her son again; at Gaev's - upon returning from the auction; in Varya - after a failed explanation with Lopakhin (fourth act); at Ranevskaya and Gaev - in front last exit from home. But at the same time, the personal drama of the main characters in “The Cherry Orchard” does not evoke such sympathy from the author, which would be the basis for the drama of the entire play.

Chekhov strongly disagreed that there were a lot of people crying in his play. "Where are they? - he wrote to Nemirovich-Danchenko on October 23, 1903. - Only Varya, but this is because Varya is a crybaby by nature, and her tears should not arouse sad feelings in the viewer. I often see “through tears,” but this only shows the mood of the faces, not the tears” (A. P. Chekhov, Complete Works and Letters, vol. 20, Goslitizdat, M., 1951, pp. 162 - 163) .

It is necessary to understand that the basis of the lyrical pathos of the play “The Cherry Orchard” is created by representatives not of the old, but of the new world - Trofimov and Anya, their lyricism is optimistic. The drama in the play “The Cherry Orchard” is obvious. This is the drama experienced by representatives of the old world and is fundamentally associated with the protection of dying forms of life.

Drama associated with the defense of passing, egoistic forms of life cannot evoke the sympathy of advanced readers and viewers and is unable to become positive pathos progressive works. And naturally, this drama did not become the leading pathos of the play “The Cherry Orchard.”

But in the dramatic states of the characters in this play there is also something that can evoke a sympathetic response from any reader and viewer. One cannot sympathize with Ranevskaya mainly - in the loss of the cherry orchard, in her bitter love wanderings. But when she remembers and cries about her seven-year-old son who drowned in the river, she feels humanly sorry. One can sympathize with her when she, wiping away tears, tells how she was drawn from Paris to Russia, to her homeland, to her daughter, and then when she says goodbye forever to the home where she passed away. happy years her childhood, adolescence, youth...

The drama of “The Cherry Orchard” is private, not defining, not leading. The stage embodiment of “The Cherry Orchard”, given by the Art Theater in a dramatic manner, does not correspond to the ideological pathos and genre originality of this play. To achieve this compliance, not partial amendments are required, but fundamental changes to the first edition of the play.

Revealing the fully optimistic pathos of the play, it is necessary to replace the dramatic basis of the performance with a comedy-no-lyric one. The prerequisites for this are found in the statements of K.S. himself. Stanislavsky. Emphasizing the importance of a more vivid stage transfer of Chekhov's dream, he wrote:

"IN fiction the end of the past and the beginning this century he was one of the first to sense the inevitability of the revolution, when it was only in its infancy and society continued to wallow in excesses. He was one of the first to give a wake-up call. Who, if not he, began to cut down the beautiful, blooming cherry orchard, realizing that his time had passed, that old life irrevocably condemned to be scrapped... Give Lopakhin in “The Cherry Orchard” the scope of Chaliapin, and young Anya the temperament of Yermolova, and let the former with all his might chop down the obsolete, and let the young girl, together with Petya Trofimov, foresee the approach new era, will shout to the whole world: “Hello, new life!” - and you will understand that “The Cherry Orchard” is alive for us, close, modern play, that Chekhov’s voice sounds cheerful and fiery in it, because he himself looks not back, but forward.”

There is no doubt that the first theatrical edition of The Cherry Orchard did not have the pathos that sounds in Stanislavsky’s just quoted words. These words already contain a different understanding of “The Cherry Orchard” than that which was characteristic of the leaders of the Art Theater in 1904. But while affirming the comedic-lyrical beginning of The Cherry Orchard, it is important, in an organic fusion with comic-satirical and major-lyrical motifs, to fully reveal the lyrical-dramatic, elegiac motifs embodied in the play with such amazing subtlety and power. Chekhov not only denounced and ridiculed the heroes of his play, but also showed their subjective drama.

Chekhov's abstract humanism, associated with his general democratic position, limited his satirical possibilities and determined certain notes of sympathetic portrayal of Gaev and Ranevskaya.

Here you need to beware of one-sidedness and simplification, which, by the way, have already happened (for example, in the production of “The Cherry Orchard” by director A. Lobanov in the studio theater under the direction of R. Simonov in 1934).

As for the Art Theater itself, changing the dramatic key to a comedic-lyrical one should not cause a decisive change in the interpretation of all roles. There is a lot in this wonderful performance, especially in its latest edition, is given correctly. One cannot help but recall that, while sharply rejecting the dramatic solution of his play, Chekhov found even in the first, far from mature performances at the Art Theater, a lot of beauty, carried out correctly.

The play was written in 1903. The action takes place in the spring on the estate of Lyubov Andreevna Ranevskaya. She is ruined, she has squandered her fortune, the estate with a beautiful cherry orchard may soon be sold for debts. The merchant Lopakhin (who has loved Ranevskaya since his youth) proposes to divide the land into plots and rent them out to summer residents in order to save them from sale. Lyubov Andreevna cannot imagine how it is possible to cut down the cherry orchard and let summer residents-tenants onto the land where she grew up, where her youth and happiness were. Summer passes in inactivity. At the end, Ermolai Lopakhin buys the estate at auction. He is happy because... his father and grandfather were serfs on this estate, and he is now a rich merchant and owner of a beautiful estate. The former owners (Ranevskaya and Gaev - brother and sister) are leaving to live in poverty. They forgot!!! in the empty house of the old man - the servant Firs. The theme of the play is the change of masters of life in Russia, and not just the owners of the estate. The play is a tragic biography of a dying era. “I wrote a comedy! Why did you make a tearful drama?” - said Chekhov. There is a lot of humor and irony in the play; the remark “everyone is laughing” is often found. The ending of the play is ambiguous. On the one hand, they are filled with optimism, faith in new life young heroes with whom the author's hopes for the future are connected. On the other hand, Firs is forgotten, the garden is being cut down - the play ends with the sad sound of a broken string and blows of an ax. Comedy? Tragedy? There is no definite answer; this is the genre uniqueness of the work.

16. Trilogy about case life. Analysis of stories by A.P. Chekhov

The “little trilogy” included 3 stories: “The Man in a Case”, “Gooseberry”, “About Love”. They are united by plot, composition, and ideas. A.P. Chekhov touches on the problem of case life here. The word “case” itself is symbolic. It personifies not only a specific object, but also a narrow, closed, destructive way of life. At the same time, a person may not even be aware of what exists in the case, trying to close himself off from the big outside world, moving away from real life.

Each of the three characters tells 1 story. Teacher Burkin talks about his colleague Belikov (“Man in a Case”). Belikov was always afraid of breaking any prohibition or order and terrorized everyone with this. Belikov hid all his things in a case. Once he liked Varenka Kovalenko, the sister of the geography teacher, but when he saw her on a bicycle, Belikov was indignant. For him this was unheard of audacity. After the hero was lowered down the stairs, Belikov went to bed and never got up again. Only now a semblance of a smile appeared on his face. This image is depicted grotesquely and symbolically. Only in death does Belikov finally find his eternal case. It’s amazing how such an insignificant person could keep the entire city in fear?! Why did everyone else indulge his fears and not resist? The solution to this issue lies in the social atmosphere of violence of that time.

Ivan Ivanovich talks about his brother (“Gooseberry”) who spent his life to buy a small estate. The landowner Alyokhin talks about his failed love due to the conventions of society (“About Love”).

All the stories are united by the problem of “caseness” (isolation, fear).

Determination of the genre of the play by A.P. Chekhov

Already at the first mention of the start of work on a new play in 1901, A.P. Chekhov told his wife what he was up to new play, and one in which everything will be turned upside down. This is what predetermined the genre of “The Cherry Orchard” as a comedy. K.S. Stanislavsky, who staged “The Cherry Orchard” on stage, perceived the play as a tragedy, and conveyed exactly this interpretation on stage, which caused deep dissatisfaction with the playwright and the author’s accusation that the director did not understand the meaning of the work. Although comedy genre Chekhov tried to convey the play “The Cherry Orchard” using many techniques: the presence of a small circus performance in Charlotte Ivanovna's tricks, Epikhodov's clumsiness, Petya's fall from the stairs, Gaev's conversations with furniture.

Also author's definition genre of “The Cherry Orchard” is also visible in discrepancies: in the characters of the play’s characters themselves appearance diverges from the internal content. For Chekhov, the suffering of his heroes is just a reflection of the weak, unbalanced characters of people who are unwilling to deeply comprehend what is happening and are incapable of deep feelings. For example, Ranevskaya, speaking about love for her homeland, about longing for her estate, is going to return to Paris without regret. What about organizing a ball on auction day? It seems like such a busy day, and she invites guests to the house. Her brother shows almost the same frivolity, just trying to seem saddened by the current situation. After the auction, practically sobbing, he complains about his depressed state and fatigue, but only when he hears the sounds of a game of billiards does he immediately perk up. However, even using such striking features The comedy “The Cherry Orchard” never saw a genre or an author’s interpretation. Only after Chekhov's death the play was staged as a tragicomedy.

Disputes about the genre of The Cherry Orchard

From the first production to the present day, there has been talk about genre originality“The Cherry Orchard,” but theatergoers still haven’t decided on the genre of the play. Of course, the problem of the genre also occurs in other plays by Anton Pavlovich, for example, in “The Seagull,” but it was only because of “The Cherry Orchard” that a heated discussion broke out between the author and the theater managers. For everyone: the director, the critic, and even the viewer, “The Cherry Orchard” was its own, and everyone saw something of their own in it. Even Stanislavsky, after Chekhov’s death, admitted that he initially did not understand the idea of ​​​​this play, arguing that The Cherry Orchard is “a difficult drama of Russian life.” And only in 1908, Chekhov’s last creation was staged as a lyrical comedy.