Anton Chekhov wrote “The Cherry Orchard” in 1903 and by 1904 it was already a hit in Moscow. Chekhov was well known by then, and the issues presented - the fading aristocracy’s inability to deal with rising revolutionary fervor — would have hit home and felt both prescient and a little scary to theatre-goers in the last years of Tsarist rule.
Carey Perloff directs this Marin Theater 2026 production with a stellar ensemble made up of Bay Area notables, including Anthony Fusco, Howard Swain, Liz Sklar, Rosie Hallett, Jomar Tagatac and Marin Theater Artistic Director Lance Gardner. This is basically the same cast she used in her previous Marin Theatre production of “Waste.” The set by NIna Ball is gorgeous to look at and the greatcoat-heavy costumes by Lydia Tanji make you happy we have central heat.
Yes, the issues are similar to today, as they always were and always will be - no one wants to change the way we live. NIMBYism appears to be as basic a human trait as the desire to diddle the servant girl.
Chekhov wrote three acts and it has been pared down to two and still feels long. Act One sets us up and Act Two tries to say good-bye but can’t. It doesn’t help that there are many people on stage at once and it is very difficult to tell who is an aristocrat and who is a serf and who is who’s mother and what about that guy with the guitar who keeps falling over?
To Chekhov, “The Cherry Orchard” was a wry comedy. We find the humor to be more banana-peel slapstick than seriously funny. But it’s 120 years later and maybe putting idiots in charge who don’t know the difference between love and dogma doesn’t feel so humorous any more.
RATINGS ***
The San Francisco Theater Blog Awards Division grants “The Cherry Orchard” Three Stars. It’s worth seeing just to enjoy the sets, laugh with Lance Gardner as he beats his head against the wall, and watch the future Bolshevik boy whisk away the soon-to-be impoverished aristocrat girl. We all know how that story ends.
“The Cherry Orchard”
Marin Theater
397 Miller Avenue, Mill Valley
Through Feb 22, 2026
$38-$89
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