The Cherry Orchard - (Oberon Modern Plays) by Anton Chekhov (Paperback)

About the Book

A contemporary version of Chekhov's classic by multi-award-winning playwright Gary Owen

Book Synopsis

Pembrokeshire, 1982. Things are going to change.

This radical reworking of Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard places the action in early 80s Wales, at the dawn of another revolution - the Thatcher regime.

Bloumfield sits on the sun-kissed south Pembrokeshire coast; a rambling, ramschackle old manor house where Rainey raised her children, surrounded by golden beaches and lush green orchards. But the death of her beloved son and husband sent Rainey fleeing to London, abandoning what remained of her family. Now, with the bank threatening to repossess, Rainey's daughters drag her back to Bloumfield. Rainey will have to face her ghosts - and her furious daughters - or lose everything.

This reworking of Chekhov's play was first performed at the Sherman Theatre, Cardiff.

Review Quotes

Gary Owen's new version of Anton Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard is a gloriously inventive reimagining that wrings the grief from the original, transforming it into a gently heart-breaking study of landscape and loss.' The Stage ★★★★★

About the Author

Gary Owen is the winner of the George Devine, Meyer Whitworth and Pearson Best Play Awards. His other plays include Crazy Gary's Mobile Disco, The Shadow of a Boy, The Drowned World, Mrs Reynolds and the Ruffian and Love Steals Us From Loneliness. With Helen Raynor he was writer and creator of the BBC Wales series Baker Boys. His theatre work also includes Perfect Match for Watford Palace Theatre, where he is a creative associate, and Ring Ring, a new version of La Ronde for the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. In June 2015 he made his Royal Court debut with Violence and Son, directed by Hamish Pirie. Iphigenia in Splott for Sherman Cymru won Best New Play at the UK Theatre Awards 2015.

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