The Cherry Orchard

The Cherry Orchard is Anton Chekhov’s last play, first performed in 1904 in the year of his death, and one of the masterpieces of modern theatre. An aristocratic Russian family returns to their beautiful country estate, unable to face the fact that debts will soon force it to be sold and the cherry orchard they love cut down. The practical Lopakhin, whose father was a serf on the estate, offers them a way to save it, but they cannot bring themselves to act, and the old order slips away while they talk and remember. Poised between comedy and heartbreak, the play captures a whole society on the edge of change. This free PDF and EPUB presents Constance Garnett’s translation.