The Cherry Orchard *** TNT
The long-awaited Bridge Project, a potentially richly rewarding enterprise between the Brooklyn Academy of Music and the Old Vic, brings together actors from across the Atlantic and the UK.
Playing in repertoire and cross-cast with The Winter’s Tale, Tom Stoppard’s new version of Chekhov’s classic is sometimes cheekily updated, but always clear, yet it proves the weaker of the two inaugural productions. It’s also the one in which the mix of accents tends to jar, despite the efforts of Ethan Hawke’s slightly grubby perpetual student.
On the whole, the Brits fare best. There are nice comic touches from Richard Easton as the ancient retainer Firs who’s losing his mind though not his loyalty to Paul Jesson’s bumptious, lazy Gaev. Sinead Cusack commands the stage as the spendthrift Ranevskaya, hanging on to past ways and scattering money she can’t afford as her estate – and beloved cherry orchard – are snapped up for development before her eyes.
But the acting honours are stolen by Simon Russell Beale’s parvenu Lopakhin, a businessman whose financial success is itself a sign of times to come and who can’t shake off the big chip of his peasant origins perched on his wealthy shoulders. Harbouring a secret admiration for Ranevskaya, he gives a masterclass in hesitation as he gets on one knee to propose – perhaps – to Rebecca Hall’s sad Varya.
But, overall, there’s something indefinable missing from Sam Mendes’ perfectly adequate production – it’s almost as though the director has tried too hard to impose his own vision on a masterpiece and has somehow diminished both.
Old Vic, The Cut, SE1 8NB (0870 060 6628)
No comments:
Post a Comment