Comedy in four acts by A.P. Chekhov
Translation: Elisabeta Pop and Laurian Oniga

Directed by: Laurian Oniga
Scenography: Gyöngyi Újvárossy Kerekes
Premiere date: March 22, 1990

At the end of the 19th century, May settles smoothly in Russia, on the estate of the brothers Leonid Andreevich Gaev and Lyubov Andreevna Ranevskaya, who have just returned from Paris after a five-year absence. The cherry blossoms remind them of their childhood; everything seems the same as then and yet, nothing is as before. In Paris, Ranevskaya has squandered her share of the inheritance on fashionable expenses with an anonymous lover, and the estate no longer brings them as much income as before. The merchant Ermolai Alexeevich Lopakhin informs them that the only way to pay off their debts and ensure the family's survival is to sell the entire estate in order to build villas, in the spirit of the economic and social transformations that announce the establishment of a new historical era. Nostalgic and absorbed by their attachment to the orchard, the two brothers at first categorically refuse to sell it. However, the precarious material situation of the entire family will leave them no other option. Lopakhin will buy the estate at auction, fully experiencing the satisfaction of being the owner of the place where he grew up, but where his grandfather and father had been slaves. Torn between the joy of this symbolic revenge and the sadness of losing dear places and people, he destroys the orchard, where everyone's dreams are buried, with each muffled blow of the axe.

Beyond this narrative thread, Chekhov's play is more than the simple story of the sale of a huge orchard, a house and a children's room. With the sale of the orchard, an allegory of the passing of time, the act of disappearance of a once all-powerful society is signed. Moreover, what happens, in the case of definitive departures, to the memories of those who leave? How can the past and the present of our lives be reconciled? How can we find the strength to leave without dying, as the well-known French saying goes?

Distribution:

Lyubov Andreevna Ranevskaya:  Simona Constantinescu
Anya, her daughter:  Mariana Presecan
Varia, her adopted daughter:  Mariana Vasile
Leonid Andreevich Gaev, her brother:  Ion Abrudan
Ermolai Alexeevich Lopakhin, merchant:  Petre Panait 
Piotr Sergeevich Trofimov, student:  Doru Firte
Boris Borisovich Simeonov-Pişcik, landlord:  Marcel Popa
Charlotte Ivanovna, governess:  Alla Tautu
Semyon Panteleevich Epikhodov, accountant:  Stefan Mares
Duniasha:  Ileana Iurciuc
Firs, lackey:  Nicholas Thomas
Iaşa, lackey:  Emil Sauciuc
A passerby:  Ion Ruscut

Technical director: Mărioara Goina
Prompter: Iuliana Murea, Zeina Druica
Lighting: Vasile Blejan, Iosif Balogh, Ioan Munteanu
Musical illustration and sound design: Valentin Bodonea