REVIEW: The Cherry Orchard at Chichester

A shame, then, that Chichester Festival Theatre's production of Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard, with Diana Rigg, Maureen Lipman, William Gaunt, Frank Finlay and Jemma Redgrave, under the guiding hand of Philip Franks, doesn't really live up to its initial promise.

It's handsomely staged and, in the main, well enough acted, with one performance to cherish.

But this should be an evening for the theatre's record book and it fails to cross the fine dividing line that separates the memorably great from the merely good.

The disappointment (for me, at any rate) has been accentuated by the fact that the season opened a couple of weeks ago with a show that was in the former category. Namely, the musical Funny Girl, which was outstanding.

There's no doubt The Cherry Orchard is a difficult play to bring off successfully, since it's supposed to be a comedy but often teeters dangerously close to the brink of out-and-out drama.

Chekhov himself, who apparently experienced some difficulty in putting his pen to the blank paper on this occasion, finally declared on completion of this masterwork that he had written a comedy that was at times farcical!

He made this comment in answer to a criticism that the play, which highlights the decline of Russian aristocracy in the late 19th century, was tedious.

And in truth there is a great deal of talk and philosophising which does seem to require a team effort not always in evidence here.

The spotlight is on the once wealthy Ranyevskaya family who are being overwhelmed by the tide of change but seemingly unaware of it.

They have become so impoverished they must either sell their estate or chop down their precious cherry orchard and auction it off for development.

The family assembles when Lyuba, the matriarch, returns after a long absence, determined to save the orchard because it symbolises a happy past.

Diana Rigg returns to Chichester to tackle Chekhov for the first time in her career by taking on the pivotal role of a woman coming home from an adulterous affair with a man who has ruined her financially.

Telling the family that without the orchard her life will no longer make sense, Rigg has her most affecting moments when she recalls the great tragedy of her young son drowning on the estate years before.

But the performance that delivers the goods is given by the marvellous Maureen Lipman who, in the smallish role of a governess, manages to take charge of every scene in which she appears, using even sleight of hand and ventriloquism. This is a truly colourful and funny character study.

William Gaunt, on the other hand, adds considerably to the sense of gloom and doom over a disappearing way of life as Ryuba's brother Gayev, looking back in a state of emotional distress.

Michael Siberry makes much of another central role, that of the self-made man Lopakhin, a merchant who analyses the family's problem and ends up buying the orchard himself.

Distinguished veteran actor Frank Finlay makes a welcome appearance as the faithful old retainer Firs, while youth is capably represented by Charlotte Riley as Lyuba's daughter Anya and Jemma Redgrave as the adopted daughter Varya.

Other performances which impress come from Simon Scardifield as a student with a jaundiced view of humanity and John Nettleton as the impoverished landowner Boris who claims to be descended from Caligula's horse!

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