The Cherry Orchard was first produced in January of 1904, a few months before the playwright's untimely death at the age of 44. The play was initially met with a mixed reception but is now considered one of Chekhov's masterpieces, along with The Seagull, Uncle Vanya, and Three Sisters.
In The Cherry Orchard, Chekhov depicts the changing world that he lived in (Russia in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries) and the struggles of an ensemble of varied characters as they struggle to adapt to change. At the center of the narrative, aristocratic Lyubov Ranevskaya appears completely helpless as her property and her elevated social position are taken away from her. Lyubov is...
