"The Cherry Orchard"

The Cherry Orchard, MCT's final production of 2019, deals with dislocating events in the life of a Russian family of landowners, their neighbors, and the people who work for them. Powerful social forces are in motion, and everyone is altered by them. Despair seems pervasive, and yet joy persists. Chekhov makes each of his characters simultaneously likable and infuriating, credible and foolish. It was his great gift as a writer to make each life in his plays complex, vivid, and necessary.