Publisher Description
Chekhov's masterful last play, The Cherry Orchard, is a work of timeless, bittersweet beauty about the fading fortunes of an aristocratic Russian family and their struggle to maintain their status in a changing world. Alternately touching and farcical, this subtle, intelligent play stars the incomparable Marsha Mason.
This is an LA Theatre Works full-cast performance starring Marsha Mason as Madame Lyubov Andreyevna Ranyevskaya, Hector Elizondo as Leonid Andreyevich Gayev, Michael Cristofer as Yermolay Alekseyevich Lopakhin, Jennifer Tilly as Dunyasha (Avdotya Fyodorovna), Joey Slotnick as Semyon Panteleyevich Yepikhodov, Christy Keefe as Anya Ranyevskaya, Amy Pietz as Varya Ranyevskaya, Jordan Baker as Charlotta Ivanovna, Jeffrey Jones as Boris Borisovich Semyonov-Pischick, Charles Durning as Feers, John Chardiet as Yasha, Tim DeKay as Pyotr Sergeyevich Trofimov, and John Chardiet as Passerby. Translated and adapted by Frank Dwyer and Nicholas Saunders. Directed by Rosalind Ayres and recorded before a live audience at the Skirball Cultural Center, Los Angeles.
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"I think this is a pretty good read. It is short, and the language is very understandable given the Russian translation. The only thing that tripped me up a few times was the similarity of some of the character names- I had to keep flipping back to the character list to make sure that I was reading it correctly. The story is very good and the characters are well developed."
—
David (4 out of 5 stars)
About the Authors
Anton Chekhov (1860–1904), the author of hundreds of short stories and several plays, is regarded by many as both the greatest Russian storyteller and the father of modern drama. He described the Russian life of his time using a deceptively simple technique devoid of obtrusive literary devices, thereby becoming the prominent representative of the late nineteenth-century Russian realist school. His early stream-of-consciousness style strongly influenced the literary world, including writers such as James Joyce.
About the Narrators
Hector Elizondo
is a stage, film, and television actor who was born and raised in New York. He
has appeared in many Broadway productions, most notably in Arthur Penn’s Sly Fox. His many film credits include Pretty Woman and Runaway Bride, both alongside Julia Roberts and Richard Gere, as
well as The Princess Diaries and Valentine’s Day.
Shannon Cochran is an actress and director, whose work includes the First National Tour of the Pulitzer Prize–winning play August: Osage County, a film opposite Kathleen Turner called The Perfect Family, and Last Days, a radio play for the BBC. She has performed and directed with LA Theatre Works, an organization producing radio plays for NPR, for fifteen years.
Marsha Mason is a four-time Academy Award nominee for Best Actress and a two-time Golden Globe winner. She was nominated for an Emmy for her guest appearance on Frasier and for a Grammy for best Comedy Album in 2000. She is currently featured on the sitcom The Middle. Her Broadway credits include The Night of the Iguana (1996) and Steel Magnolias (2005).
Hector Elizondo
is a stage, film, and television actor who was born and raised in New York. He
has appeared in many Broadway productions, most notably in Arthur Penn’s Sly Fox. His many film credits include Pretty Woman and Runaway Bride, both alongside Julia Roberts and Richard Gere, as
well as The Princess Diaries and Valentine’s Day.