Talk:The Cherry Orchard

Ending

Why is the ending revealed in the introduction?? --Shandris 11:39, 25 April 2006 (UTC)

The auction at the end of the play is discussed throughout. It is really the one thing about which the play revolves, so it would make sense to include it in the intro. *Exeunt* Ganymead | Dialogue? 15:11, 25 April 2006 (UTC)

Translation problems

There is a big problem here, the translation in this article seems to be inconsistent. The names of the character differs in different parts of the articleArthur 16:36, 3 September 2006 (UTC)

Transliteration of names now made consistent throughout. -- Picapica (talk) 12:51, 20 June 2011 (UTC)

In the "Theme" chapter, the author states:

....not ironically, the name Lyubov in Russian loosely translates to "love"....

Actually, the name Lyubov precisely and literally translates to word "love".

Potential problem in Background information: Under "The Cherry Orchard" page, this was written:

When Chekhov was sixteen, his mother went into debt after having been cheated by some builders she had hired to construct a small house. A former lodger, Gabriel Selivanov, offered to help her financially, but in turn secretly bought the house for himself. At approximately the same time, his childhood home in Taganrog was sold to pay off its mortgage. These financial and domestic upheavals imprinted themselves on his memory greatly and would reappear in the action of The Cherry Orchard.

However under "Anton Chekhov" page, this was written:

In 1876, disaster struck the family. Chekhov's father was declared bankrupt after over-extending his finances building a new house,[23] and to avoid the debtor's prison fled to Moscow, where his two eldest sons, Alexander and Nikolai, were attending the university. The family lived in poverty in Moscow, Chekhov's mother physically and emotionally broken.[24] Chekhov was left behind to sell the family possessions and finish his education.

Chekhov remained in Taganrog for three more years, boarding with a man called Selivanov who, like Lopakhin in The Cherry Orchard, had bailed out the family for the price of their house.[25]

Find source/review information.

--LRVCa13 05:44, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

I'm going to start with an easy one, as there seem to be only two versions: Lophakin/Lopakhin. Views as to which way to go? I'm inclined to Lopakhin, partly through usage here and partly through external usage, about 14 to one in favor (thanks, googlehits). --Old Moonraker (talk) 13:48, 19 November 2011 (UTC)

I would like to mention that there are different words for cherry and sour cherry in Russian (and other Slavic languages) and "sour cherry (вишня)" is not included in the term "cherry (черешня)" as it is in English. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Wikista (talk • contribs) 23:21, 24 May 2012 (UTC)

I don't think that your re-naming the work The (Sour) Cherry Orchard (sic) serves, and I reverted the change. In the edit summary I cited the description from Firs (Julius West translation): "the dried cherries were soft, juicy, sweet, and nicely scented"; I didn't consider the lexical issues. We must also consider the universal use and recognition the existing title in English is given. Wikipedia isn't a platform from which to change the world! --Old Moonraker (talk) 06:06, 25 May 2012 (UTC)

Addition to Production History

Given that the translation by Libby Appel is mentioned at the opening of the article, it would be logical to also mention her production in this section, also noting that she chose to direct it in her final season as artistic director.

Cherry blossom tree vs Cherry fruit tree

The picture seems to show Cherry Blossom Trees, while in the play it is stated that the orchard gives cherries so the picture is somewhat misleading. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Ahassan05 (talk • contribs) 18:21, 25 February 2009 (UTC)

Just why I came here. I've removed the photo. It shows ornamental cherries, which are not grown commercially for ttheir fruit crop - they are grown purely for their blossom, so wouldn't be in the famous Charry Orchard of the play. Cherry fruits come from plain white cherry blossom, not these pink frou-frou items.86.133.246.81 (talk) 18:36, 18 January 2010 (UTC)

"May contain minor or trivial references"

The "In popular culture" section has been tagged thus for nearly a year. I've just rolled up my sleeves to deal with it, but I've retreated again: I couldn't actually see anything but "minor or trivial references", with nothing worth keeping. To delete the lot would probably be too much. Suggestions? --Old Moonraker (talk) 21:30, 30 July 2011 (UTC)

No, I didn't mean just ditch the tag. I'm going to pick a couple, to start. Suggestions welcome. --Old Moonraker (talk) 11:42, 19 November 2011 (UTC)

Characters?

Is there a reason why the 'characters' section is dramatically cut down? A very helpful and extensive introduction to the characters was present in earlier revisions of this article (example: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Cherry_Orchard&oldid=253078687#Characters) - this smaller dramatic personae doesn't really reflect the significance of the characters to the themes of the play or the reason they are present. --Pookiyama (talk) 00:03, 21 September 2011 (UTC)

That's a long memory you have! WikiBlame has identified the deletion, by an IP editor who made only that edit. It looks like vandalism and I'm going to reinstate it, with acknowledgements to you. --Old Moonraker (talk) 07:03, 21 September 2011 (UTC)

Possible new lede image

Is there any merit in promoting the new image of the first production (thanks, User:Alcmaeonid) to be the lede image, replacing the statue from the town where the playwright died? --Old Moonraker (talk) 20:34, 5 July 2012 (UTC)

Done. Thanks again for finding this. --Old Moonraker (talk) 08:05, 7 July 2012 (UTC)

Characters

On 14:46, 14 June 2014 I added the tag to the allegation in the aforementioned characters section that Yasha is strongly implied to be Lyubov's gigolo, asking for discussion or a possible citation. I later (17:03, 28 October 2015) removed this entirely along with a rewrite of the characters section.

This section can now be removed from the talk page as I don't think it's relevant any more... Pookiyama (talk) 19:23, 21 January 2016 (UTC)

Section with no citations archived, marked in 2016 as original research

This section was tagged in 2016 as original research because there were no citations and it is archived from the article to the Talk page here for discussion which originally appeared in a section called "Composition":

"There were several experiences in Chekhov's own life that are said to have directly inspired his writing of The Cherry Orchard. When Chekhov was sixteen, his mother went into debt after being cheated by some builders she had hired to construct a small house. A former lodger, Gabriel Selivanov, offered to help her financially, but secretly bought the house for himself. At approximately the same time, Chekhov's childhood home in Taganrog was sold to pay off its mortgage. These financial and domestic upheavals imprinted themselves deeply on his memory and would reappear in the action of The Cherry Orchard."

"Later in his life, living on a country estate outside Moscow, Chekhov developed an interest in gardening and planted his own cherry orchard. After relocating to Yalta due to his poor health, Chekhov was devastated to learn that the buyer of his former estate had cut down most of the orchard. Returning on one trip to his childhood haunts in Taganrog, he was further horrified by the devastating effects of industrial deforestation. It was in those woodlands and the forests of his holidays in Ukraine that he had first nurtured his ecological passion (this passion is reflected in the character of Dr. Astrov, from his earlier play Uncle Vanya, whose love of the forests is his only peace). A lovely and locally famous cherry orchard stood on the farm of family friends where he spent childhood vacations, and in his 1888 novella The Steppe, Chekhov depicts a young boy crossing Ukraine amidst fields of cherry blossoms. Finally, the first inklings of the genesis for the play that would be his last came in a terse notebook entry of 1897: "cherry orchard". Today, Chekhov's Yalta garden survives alongside The Cherry Orchard as a monument to a man whose feeling for trees equaled his feeling for theatre. Indeed, trees are often unspoken, symbolic heroes and victims of his stories and plays; so much so that Chekhov is often singled out as Europe's first ecological author."

"Chekhov wrote The Cherry Orchard over the course of several years, alternating between periods of lighthearted giddiness and despondent frustration which he considered as bordering upon sloth (in a letter, he wrote, "Every sentence I write strikes me as good for nothing.") Throughout this time he was also further inhibited by his chronic tuberculosis. Guarded by nature, Chekhov seemed overly secretive about all facets of the work, including even the title. As late as the Summer of 1902 he still had not shared anything about the play with anyone in his immediate family or the Moscow Art Theatre (MAT). It was only to comfort his wife, Olga Knipper (who was recovering from a miscarriage at the time), that he finally let her in on the play's title, whispering it to her despite the fact that the two were alone. Chekhov was apparently delighted with the very sound of the title, and enjoyed the same sense of triumph months later when he finally revealed it to Konstantin Stanislavski. By October 1903 the play was finished and sent to the MAT company. Three weeks later, Chekhov arrived at rehearsals in what would be a futile attempt to curb all the "weepiness" from the play which Stanislavski had developed. The author apparently also snickered when, during rehearsals, the word "orchard" was replaced with the more practical "plantation", feeling that with that word he had perfectly and symbolically captured the impracticality of an entire way of life."

The above are the three paragraphs quoted for Talk page. FutureForecasts (talk) 15:14, 17 May 2018 (UTC)

Social analysis

The term « aristocrat » should be replaced here by « gentry ». Russian did not have an aristocracy in the sense of France or England. The State rewarded civilian or military services with land grants, which were inheritable. These land owners had no titles, and no connection to the court. They were the old middle class. With the liberation of the serfs and the industrialisation of Russia, the old middle class lost ground to the new middle class. David chaffetz (talk) 22:57, 6 November 2022 (UTC)

I agree that Ranevskaya is not herself an aristocrat, having no title, and the article should not refer to her as such. However, it must be less certain that the play does not address the loss of power of the aristocracy as well as the gentry, since it is symbolic rather than documentary. Therefore perhaps references to that theme should say gentry and aristocracy. Sbishop (talk) 08:27, 7 November 2022 (UTC)

Reference to "The Cherry Orchard"

Ann Patchett published a book, "Tom Lake" on 1 August 2023 in which a family has its own cherry orchard. There is a reference in her book, on page 168, to "The Cherry Orchard" and, on page 172, one of the characters says to Joe, her father: "You read us Checkhov at bedtime".

I don't know if it would be appropriate to add this to the article or not, and am open to suggestions. Paulthedesertrat (talk) 22:34, 2 March 2024 (UTC)