“If ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Sometimes the same adage should apply to theater. After watching The Cherry Orchard, one might wonder why Stephen Karam (The Humans) adapted Anton Chekhov’s classic play. Mounted by Roundabout Theatre Company, the play offers a muddled version of the story of a once- affluent Russian family that has fallen on bad times. Now its estate, including the eponymous Cherry Orchard, is up for auction. The family, headed by Lyubov Ranevskaya (the beautiful, stately Diane Lane) and her garrulous brother Leonid (John Glover) are blithely unconcerned; they expect to be saved by a miracle. Although they talk about their situation constantly, they do nothing and then are stunned when it actually happens.
A businessman who himself was once a slave on the property, Yermolai (Harold Perrineau) urges them to convert the land to summer cottages, but they naively ignore his advice. So eventually he buys it himself.
Perhaps the play is dated and needs a revision, but Karam’s adaptation is confusing and, at times, bewildering. The landowners and the servants mix quite freely and there’s little sense of class distinction. Nowhere is that more obvious than in the costume party at the house in the second act. One might ask why Lyubov is spending money on a lavish party complete with live musicians when she is in dire financial straights.
The first scene occurs in Lyubov’s childhood bedroom that forces the characters to sit in toddler chairs. The chairs look awkward and uncomfortable, especially for Simeonov-Pischik, a neighbor who is constantly borrowing money (played by the rather portly Chuck Cooper.)
Karam refers to the serfs of the period as ‘slaves”, and the play has cast black men to portray most of the male servants in the play. The play is set at the turn of the century in Russia, yet inevitably the audience envisions the South after the Civil War.