The Orchard at The Orchard! The Robert J. Orchard Stage, Paramount Center, Arts Emerson, Boston MA, to be precise. It’s almost too pat. Yet there’s nothing pat about Ukraine-born director Igor Golyak’s high-tech deconstruction, or if you prefer, distillation of Anton Chekhov’s undeniable masterwork The Cherry Orchard. Like it or hate it, find it illuminating or confusing, this 105-minute intermissionless extravaganza, with notables Jessica Hecht and Mikhail Baryshnikov toplined, cannot be fairly accused of predictability.
Arlekin Players Theater – which Golyak founded in 2009 but which really came into its own creating virtual entertainment during the pandemic – is purveying The Orchard in two complementary events. The other is staged virtually and, I’m told, combines parts of the live show with such unique elements as an online tour of the Ranevskaya mansion auctioned off during act three. (Those rooms evidently exist in the Baryshnikov Arts Center, a co-sponsor of this tour.) For a variety of reasons I wasn’t able to take in the computer-based experience, so I can only report on what I saw from the front. Which isn’t a lot, incidentally, because the show is staged behind a scrim for the projection of both live and prerecorded video imagery. Hidden by images of snowflakes that turn into real snowflakes like so much dandruff, the cast seems more or less trapped behind glass until the curtain call.
Which is not to say that there isn’t much of interest behind said glass. The show’s most celebrated feature is designer Tom Sepe’s 12-foot-tall, swivelling robotic arm right of center, its silhouette somewhere between a cherry tree and the hopping lamp that stares out at us at the beginning of every Pixar movie. As a matter of fact, Sepe’s installation does precisely that at rise, and is later deputized to such tasks as serving tea and hoisting one of the set’s many white benches. (The design is by Anna Fedorova.) Also on the premises is a scampering robotic dog, headless but lovable; he only fitfully engages the attention of the returning Mme. Ranevskaya (Hecht) and entourage, but he sure engaged mine.
What, you may ask, does all this reveal of the story of a mistress’s estate and titular orchard falling into the hands of the nouveau riche neighbor Lopakhin (Nael Nacer)? To one unfamiliar with the original narrative, I warrant The Orchard would be a real puzzler, what with a lot of muffled exposition as the characters lounge on benches and floor in odd louche poses, lacking clarity despite closeups captured live on the big screen. A few mentions are made of Ranevskaya’s long-ago drowned little boy, whose death is central to what happens in Chekhov but doesn’t carry nearly the resonance here. And while it’s pretty clear that ownership is changing, due to the estate auction’s occurring during a projected Zoom chat, neither doddering Gaev (Jeffrey Hayenga) nor his sister, whom Hecht plays younger and flightier than usual for the role, seems much troubled by the loss.
One clear standout is Nacer, who evokes a respectful, eager-to-please improviser, coping with his neighbors’ odd behavior but unable not to crow at his own good fortune. Another is Baryshnikov, who at 74 is still spry as a cricket but readily takes on the frail, fussy persona of the ancient retainer Firs, and gets many laughs thereby. Either would seamlesssly fit into a conventional Cherry Orchard production, and Nacer in particular livens things up considerably, not least because his vocal and physical energy manage to leap out to the spectator. (I hate to keep harping on that scrim, but there it is.)
With one foot in the 19th century and the other on Spaceship Earth, The Orchard literally embodies one of Chekhov’s main themes, an Old Guard giving way to a new generation. And I did find it fascinating, less for its relationship to one of my favorite plays than for what it anticipates for my favorite art form. Robotics, it seems to me, offers tremendous potential for innovative staging, including the creation of “virtual actors” that might bring to live spectacle what CGI can bring to the motion picture screen. Projection designers of my acquaintance assert they’ve only begun to explore the limits of what can be done on stage, and Alex Basco Koch’s work here, varied and inventive, brings individual actors’ emotions to the forefront; his virtual snowstorms contribute to an undeniable mood of melancholy. With the gifted Deaf bilingual Seth Gore in the house as dashing Trofimov, he and Golyak give as much emphasis to ASL as to untranslated, but equally expressive, Russian dialogue, adding unexpected layers of meaning and engagement. Let us have more ASL in more shows, by all means. And exploring a merger between live performance and digital communication is surely an idea whose time has come. If audiences, especially young audiences, find laptops and iPhones as essential to life as credit cards, keys or breathing, why not co-opt such devices to positive and potentially exciting ends?
For all these reasons, and for the production’s sheer audacity, Arlekin as a company and Golyak as an individual artist are worth keeping a close eye on. And they’re based right here in Needham, Mass. Fancy that.
The Orchard opened November 4, 2022, at the Paramount Center (Boston) and runs through November 13. Tickets and information: theorchardoffbroadway.com
