TEXT OF REVIEW (differs slightly from final edit for time).

​​​​​For centuries, serfs had no power in Russia. They weren’t quite slaves, but they also were not free. It was a feudal society, run by a powerful nobility ruled by an all-powerful Tsar. Due to societal and economic advances, that all changed in 1861 when Alexander the second freed the serfs.

Even though their economic status shifted, and a new middle class was born, the old nobility carried on as before, eventually finding themselves in poverty.

The great playwright Anton Chekhov wrote about these newly impoverished aristocrats, first in Uncle Vanya, and then later in his final play, The Cherry Orchard, which runs in a new production at Marin Theatre through February 22nd.

The spendthrift Madame Lyubov has returned to her country estate with her two daughters, having bankrupted the family while in Paris. The estate itself is now up for auction, and the only way to save it is to sell the land to make way for a vacation home development. That means destroying the fabled cherry orchard, once a key element of the family’s inheritance.

The production uses a 1993 translation by Paul Schmidt, which underlines the parallels to today’s world, of which there are several, while maintaining a style that makes clear this is a translation. The characters never use contractions, such as won’t, can’t or weren’t. This combination of the modern and the archaic creates a distance, which is translated by director Carey Perloff into a heightened form of acting, most successful in the comic segments and less so in the pathos. At times the production almost feels like a musical, say, A Little Night Music, with Lyubov substituting for Desiree Armfeldt.

Carey Perloff has assembled a who’s who cast of Bay Area actors. Liz Sklar leads the cast as Madame Lyubov, ever the diva, and Anthony Fusco matches her as her brother Gayev, both showing the befuddlement befitting two souls who can’t wrap their heads around their predicament. Then there’s the comic brilliance of Danny Scheie as the neighbor Pishchik and Jomar Tagatac as the family clerk. Rounding out the Bay Area names are Leontyne Mbele-Mbong as the circus born governess and Marin Theatre artistic director Lance Gardner as Lopatkin, the serf turned businessman..

In an age when the theatrical canon is often reviled, and a time when the plays of Checkov, Ibsen and Shaw are often confined to high school, college, and community stages, creating a professional production can be a great risk. But at Marin Theatre, it’s a risk well worth taking.

The Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekhov, directed by Carey Perloff, plays at Marin Theatre through February 22. More more information, you can go to marintheatre.org. I’m Richard Wolinsky on Bay Area Theatre for KPFA.

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