THE CHERRY ORCHARD

It’s the final call to say goodbye. The Cherry Orchard, Anton Chekhov’s testamentary text, presents us with a family burdened by debt facing their bankrupt estate: the grand cherry orchard that was once beautiful and lush, but it’s now a thing of the past. Saying goodbye to it means saying goodbye to memories, to what has passed into History but no longer makes History. All this at a fast pace because there is no time for farewells in these times.

Tonight, Chekhov’s pauses are turned upside down and time is accelerated. In this farewell-like frenzy there is an attempt to counteract nostalgia and deal with the frustration of a future that is slow in coming. If bodies have memory, then it is no longer clear whether these are faithful memories of a past. Probably, the bodies have become stylized recollections of a past that begins and ends here: that of performativity.

Between scenic games that intertwine like multiplied information, the irony of discourse is explored, sometimes through the suspension of intentions, sometimes through the malleability with which they metamorphose in an instant. In this way, the act of farewell is investigated in its variations, from sadness to anxiety, from nostalgia to frustration, from pain to laughter to mask misfortune. Laughter is the best way to cry.

The white of the collapsing cherry orchard blends with the shattering mask of privilege, or is it still a privilege that we can put on a mask to be here.

Watching an aging horizon can be like watching youth slip away. We are kissing Chekhov, yes, but surrendered to the present time.

THE CHERRY ORCHARD

PERFORMERS: Beatriz Magalhães, Beatriz Oliveira, Hélia Viterbo, Lara Ferreira, Bia Ramos, Matilde Neto, Paula Guzmán Gil and Luísa Loureiro.

TEXT: Anton Tchékhov

TRANSLATION: António Pescada

STAGING: Ivo Saraiva e Silva

ART DESIGN: José Cruz

WILLE’S SONG PERFORMED LIVE BY: Inês Leal

VOCAL SUPPORT: Sérgio de Brito

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: António Pescada, António Silva, Brígida Santos, Carlos Silva, Francisco Falcão, Irene Saraiva, Paula Braga, SillySeason and Tomás Silva.